Walk Boldly With Jesus

Come As You Are Series -- MaryLuke 1:38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.”I have been hesitant to talk about Mary in our Come As You Are series. I am not sure why. Part of it was that there was so much you could say about her. Another part of it was that we may feel we can't relate to Mary. She is amazing and so brave, and is the Mother of Jesus. What could we possibly have in common with her?I went online to learn more about Mary before she became the Mother of Jesus. Scripture does not tell us a lot about her before the Angel Gabriel visited her. There are a few things they do tell us and then there are a few things that we can learn from historical context. We know she was a woman living in her time.Here are a few things we know about Mary.1. She lived in NazarethLuke 1:26 says the angel Gabriel was sent “to a virgin in Nazareth.”Nazareth was a tiny, poor, obscure village — maybe 200–400 people.Nothing “good” came from there (John 1:46 “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”)This tells us: Mary was from a humble, ordinary, overlooked place.2. She was a virgin engaged to JosephLuke 1:27 “to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.”Engagement (betrothal) in Jewish culture was legally binding — more serious than a modern engagement.This tells us: She was likely between 13–16 years old, a normal age for betrothal.3. She was deeply faithful and knew ScriptureMary’s song, the Magnificat (Luke 1:46–55), is filled with: Quotes from Psalms, Echoes of Hannah’s prayer (1 Samuel 2), Old Testament theology about God’s mercy, justice, and covenantThis tells us: She had a heart soaked in God’s Word long before Gabriel appeared.4. She was humbleHer response to Gabriel: “I am the servant of the Lord…” (Luke 1:38)Her song: “He has looked on the humble state of His servant” (Luke 1:48)This tells us: Humility wasn’t something she learned after meeting Jesus — it was already who she was.5. She found favor with God before she was chosenLuke 1:28: “You are highly favored.”Luke 1:30: “You have found favor with God.”This tells us: She already lived a life that pleased God — long before she carried Jesus.Now that we know a bit more about Mary, we can see that there may be some similarities.Here is a summary of the things we know about Mary. She was a young teen, living in an obscure, poor town. She had little earthly status, but had a deep love for God. She was humble, faithful, and obedient. She really knew her Scripture. God already favored her at a young age.Some of this we might relate to, and some of it we might not. Many can relate to growing up in an obscure place or feeling out of place in our community. We talked about this when we talked about Gideon. He was a man from the weakest clan in Manasseh and, by his own admission, the least in his family. Yet the angel of God called him a “mighty warrior.” What about you? What do you call yourself? What does your family call you? Do they see the amazing person that God sees, or do they just see you as a friend, a mom, a dad, a sibling? I know my kids are always surprised when I know something they don't think I should know. To them, I am just mom. They don't see me as someone who has her master’s degree or someone who has written books and started her own business. They just see me as mom.I doubt many people from Mary’s town would have looked at her and said, “She is going to be the mother of our Savior one day.” I doubt they looked at her and saw anything special. If the days when she lived were anything like when I was young, then she was probably an outcast, as those who love God tend to be outcasts. People don’t understand why we love God so much. They don't understand why we would choose Him over all the “fun” things to do in this world.I was told by a priest one time how Mary and Joseph got engaged. He said that Mary had made a vow to the Lord to remain a virgin. The unmarried men in the area gathered to see who would marry this young woman who wanted to remain a virgin. They all threw their staffs in a pile, and when Joseph threw his in the pile, flowers grew out of it. This is why you will often see Joseph depicted with a staff with flowers growing out of it. When I looked up this story online, I found that this story is from the apocrypha (ancient books not considered reliable enough to be included in the Bible). There, the Protoevangelium of James claims that when young Mary wanted to dedicate herself as a perpetual virgin at the Temple, the high priest prayed for direction. An angel then told him to gather all of the unmarried men of the area, and have each one bring his rod (generally thought to be a walking stick or staff) to the temple “and to whomsoever the Lord shall show a sign, his wife shall she be…and Joseph took his rod last; and behold, a dove came out of the rod, and flew upon Joseph’s head. And the priest said to Joseph, ‘

Though We Stumble, We Shall Not FallPsalm 37:23-24 “Our steps are made firm by the Lord, when he delights in our way; though we stumble, we shall not fall headlong, for the Lord holds us by the hand.”I have read that verse several times today and yet this time when I read it I got the image of toddler walking along the sidewalk while he is holding his daddy’s hand. When we are just learning to walk we definitely stumble and sometimes we even fall. We fall because we are learning something new. We fall because we are letting go of the safety of the wall, couch, or coffee table and venture out on our own. It is not a bad thing when we fall as long as we get back up and try again. It is expected to take time to learn something new. It is part of the journey. If we never let go of that safety net we will never learn what we are capable of. What I love about this verse though is that it says we will stumble, but we will not fall because God hold us by the hand. God allows us to venture out into the unknown, but we are not alone. He doesn’t send us out alone, he holds our hand. He allows us to stumble, but we don’t fall headfirst into the ground. We stumble and He steadies us. To me that is a great image. The beginning line of this verse says, “Our steps are made firm by the Lord, when he delights in our way.” I found the word “when” an interesting addition to this sentence. I was wondering why it was there. I know the words in the Bible are chosen carefully so what does that first sentence mean? The first thought that came to me was maybe when our steps are unsteady and weak, we aren’t doing what the Lord wants us to do. Maybe we are like a child venturing out on our own. We aren’t waiting for the Lord to hold our hand, we are just heading out without him. Have you ever done this? Saw something you wanted and went after it. You didn’t stop to ask God if it was right for you? You didn’t stop to weigh the pros and cons, you didn’t really give it much thought at all. It all seemed too good to be true and so you ran after it. Yep, me too. How did it work out for you? Was it all you thought it would be? The thought that keeps coming up in my mind is, “Not every opportunity is from God.” If something feels too good to be true, this is a great time to pause and examine the situation. I am definitely an optimist so you won’t find me raining on your parade. Maybe it is exactly what you have been praying for. Maybe God gave this opportunity to you as an answer to your prayers. God does do amazing things. Often times God’s plan do seem too good to be true. This is not me telling you if it seems too good to be true it probably is. What I am saying is if the opportunity is from God He won’t mind if you pause to consult Him about it. He will like it if you take time to pray about it. Even if that time is 5 minutes. A job may come up and you may not have a lot of time to consider it, that’s ok. Take a few minutes, catch your breath and ask God what He thinks. Ask Him for guidance and see what he says, or how you feel about the job after you have talked to God about it. Have you ever rushed into the perfect opportunity because you thought it was the answer to your prayers and it wasn’t? This can happen when we don’t stop and invite God into our decision making. For instance, we have been praying for more money and then a promotion becomes available. We decide, without talking to God, this promotion is the answer to all of our prayers. However, when we get the promotion we find out it has a lot of travel attached to it, or longer hours and now we never get to spend time with our family. Not every opportunity is from God. Sometimes the enemy offers us things that seem like what we want but aren’t actually good for us. For instance we want to be rich and powerful and we achieve it and yet we are not happy. These opportunities, or maybe the desires, might be from the enemy. We live in a fast paced world and sometimes it seems like we have to do everything so quickly. We feel as though we don’t have 5 minutes to stop and think. If you don’t have time to pause and consult the Lord then I don’t believe that opportunity is from the Lord. I think that is the enemy trying to get you to make decisions based on your feelings instead of your thoughts. Our feelings can betray us. When we are acting solely upon our feelings we are letting go of God’s hand and telling Him we can walk on our own. We are telling God we don’t need Him. Our feelings don’t have our overall best interest at heart. Our feelings are based on our temporary happiness. Their goal is to make us feel good in the moment. For instance, we might eat some macaroni and cheese for dinner because are feeling sad today and want to feel happy. However, how is that macaroni and cheese going to make you feel when you no longer fit into your clothing. We might take a job that seems good and pays a lot of money because we feel scared that we won’t have enough money to pay the bills. Ho

Come As You Are Series - The Woman Who Anointed Jesus’ FeetLuke 7:47 "Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”I usually don’t have a scripture verse for these episodes in advance. I usually ask God to give me one right before I write it, or I look in my Encounter Ministry notes, or my prayer group notes. However, yesterday, when I was listening to another podcast, this story from the Bible came to me clear as day. This is not necessarily strange because, as you know, I sometimes get my episode ideas from other podcasts like The Big Life Devotional, Elevation, or Father Mike’s podcasts. However, this time the podcast I was listening to was not talking about this story at all. The story just popped into my head, and I felt as if that was definitely the verse I was supposed to use today. I chose Luke 7:47 as the main verse because that was the main point I felt the Holy Spirit emphasized when I got the verse; however, it probably won’t make any sense without the context of the whole story. The story is called “Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman,” and it is found in Luke 7:36-50. “When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.” Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now, which of them will love him more?” Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said. Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”Actually, now that I am writing, I see why this came to me while I was listening to the other podcast. The Big Life Devotional Podcast with Pamela Crim was talking about loving other people yesterday. As soon as she said Do we love others, this story came to mind. I think the point the Holy Spirit wanted me to make is about forgiveness. In this verse, Jesus is forgiving this woman of her sins. The reason she was crying and was washing Jesus’ feet with her tears and anointing them with perfume is that she knew all of her sins. She didn’t come into that house pretending to be anything different. She knew she was full of sin and that she was in the presence of the Lord. She knew she had a lot to repent for, and she knew Jesus could forgive her sins. She wasn’t afraid to approach Jesus. She didn’t let her sins keep her from coming into the presence of God. She approached him, bowed at his feet, and washed his feet. She humbled herself with the faith that she would be forgiven. Today’s verse says, “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” The person who owned the house was thinking in his head that Jesus didn’t know all of her sins. He was thinking if Jesus were a prophet, he would know her sins, and he would not let her touch Him. What Jesus is saying here is that if she weren’t a great sinner, if she didn’t really have many sins, she wouldn’t have humbled herself, she wouldn’t have sat at his feet and washed them with her tears. She loved Jesus so much because she knew how much sin she had and how great a thing it was for Him to forgive it all. She loved Him so much because she had so much sin. What the Holy Spirit was saying to me yesterday was that we should be more loving to others because we have been forgiven so much also. I feel like I am struggling to get you to see what the Holy Spirit was showing me, and yet I am trusting what He wants you to hear; you will hear. What he showed me was that we struggle to forgive

Today's Witness Wednesday is from Chicken Soup for the Soul "A Book of Miracles" 101 True Stories of Healing, Faith, Divine Internvention, and Answered Prayers by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and LeAnn Theiman. Today's witness is about a woman who found out she had 5 weeks to live and yet God had other plans. We have all seen God working in our lives. However, we might not all be aware it is God working in our lives. This is why it is so important we start talking about it more. The more we share our experiences, the more people understand how God works and how much He truly loves us. If you would be willing to share any experience of how God has worked or is working in your life, please email me at [email protected] or click here. It won’t take up much of your time, and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today. Prayerfully consider sharing. Everyone has a story, and the world needs to hear them. Music: "Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com CLICK HERE TO DONATE CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails CLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Words Have Power to Bless or to WoundJames 1:19 “You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.”This verse really hit home with me this morning. It was the subject of the daily devotional I am reading, “Jesus Calling.” Actually, it wasn’t even today’s message. I am behind because I was on vacation and I wasn’t doing my normal morning routine. This morning I got up and decided I would do two devotionals so I can try to catch up to where I should be. This book is so good. I always really enjoy the devotionals. The reason I say this morning's devotional hit home for me is that I know how important words can be, and I know how much what we can say can hurt others. I just got back from a family vacation with my husband, all three of our boys, and my husband’s whole family, his mom and dad, his brother and his wife, and their two girls. This is one of our favorite times of the year. It is so nice to get to spend a whole week with family. We get to hang out and talk. We get to play lots of games, especially with his mom and dad. My youngest two boys love to play with their two girls. They play all different board games and card games. It is music to my ears to hear them talking and laughing. The place we go to is a campground in Maine. We stay in a cabin with no internet. There is internet at the lodge, which is open 8-7, but not in our cabins. There is a TV, but it doesn’t have cable; you can just watch movies on it. I love this because it means we have so much more time to talk and to visit. However, as you can imagine, my kids do not love this. Two of them really enjoy playing games with their cousins, playing chess with their Pop (Tony’s dad), and playing Parcheesi with both Tony’s parents. They also really enjoy it when we rent a boat and they get to go out in the boat and go fishing, or when we pull them behind the boat on a boogie board. However, that still leaves a lot of time when they are bored. They do not enjoy the fact that there is no Wifi. They miss talking with their friends on the computer and playing video games with their friends. Also, this year was super hot, and the cabins are not air-conditioned. Since our house is air-conditioned, they are not used to sleeping in such hot temperatures. Some parts of the trip were difficult for them.Our oldest really did not enjoy the vacation. He really liked spending time talking with Tony’s brother, and he got to play chess with Pop a few times, but most of the time, he was unhappy. I did go out and get him a fan at one point, and he was much more comfortable after that, but he still was very unhappy. He is the reason this verse hit home today. When he is unhappy or angry, he says things he doesn’t mean. He is really struggling right now, and being away from his friends and his work for a week was more than he could take. Each day, at least once a day, he would start to say very unkind things. Not because he really thinks those things were true, but because he was upset, and that is how he acts when he is upset. I don’t know why he does this. It is not something new; he has done this ever since he was little. In the moment, when he is angry, he does not care what he is saying or who he is hurting. However, afterwards, he feels really bad about it. I wish he could hear this verse and adopt this principle. I am going to write it on a sticky note for him, because I know he doesn’t want to do this. He doesn’t want to feel this way; he doesn’t want to say unkind things and then feel bad about it later. He needs help learning to control what he says, and it is not human help he needs. He needs the Lord’s help. I know my son is not the only one who says things they don’t mean when they are angry. We have all done this before. I thought I would read you the devotional I read this morning because it really explains this verse well and how important it is to watch our words. “Watch your words diligently. Words have such great power to bless or to wound. When you speak carelessly or negatively, you damage others as well as yourself. This ability to verbalize is an awesome privilege, granted only to those I created in my image. You need help in wielding this mighty power responsibly. Though the world applauds quick-witted retorts, my instructions about communication are quite different: “be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.” Ask my spirit to help you whenever you speak. I have trained you to pray – "Help me, Holy Spirit" – before answering the phone, and you have seen the benefits of this discipline. Simply apply the same discipline to communicating with people around you. If they are silent, pray before speaking to them. If they are talking, pray before responding. These are split-second prayers, but they put you in touch with my presence. In this way, your speaking comes under the control of my spirit. As positive speech patterns replace your negative ones, the increase in your joy will a

We Are More Than Conquerors Through Him Who Loved UsRomans 8:35-39 “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”This scripture verse is letting us know that there is nothing that we can do that will separate us from God’s love. It is also telling us that we should not interpret the bad things that are happening in our lives as proof that God has stopped loving us. God will continue to love us forever. There is nothing that we can do to change this. The verse is asking us if hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword will separate us from Christ. This is a tough question because these things can separate us if we let them. One really important part of this verse is when it says, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Do you need to hear that again? “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”If this is the case, then why do we feel so defeated at times? Some of the things listed above can absolutely separate us from Christ if we let them. Have you ever gone through a hardship and instead of feeling closer to God, you felt farther away? Have you ever struggled to see where God was in all of your pain? This can happen to a lot of people. I just heard about a couple that lost one of their 6-month-old twins. Loss of a child is something that can really strain your relationship with God. Losing a loved one is always hard. However, losing a child has got to be one of the hardest things to understand. It makes no sense to us. Why did she have to die? Why would God do this to their family? Why wouldn’t God heal her, as we know that He can? When we are hurting, we tend to lash out and we try to find someone to blame. God is a good candidate as He is strong and He can take our anger. God doesn’t mind when we yell at Him, as He understands what we are going through. The problem is when we don’t process our anger and our grief, and we stay mad at God. If we are able to lean into God instead of turning away from Him in anger, God can give us the strength to get back up again after we have been knocked down. God can ease our pain and help us to get out of bed in the morning. God can help us find a reason to go on. We can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us. We can defeat the grief we feel if we turn to God and ask Him to help us. The same is true with any hardship you are going through. Maybe you have lost your job, and you don’t know how you are going to provide for your family right now. Turn to God, and He will help you provide. He will provide for you if you ask Him to. He is amazing!What about persecution and famine, could that separate you from Christ? I can see how it could. If you are being persecuted for your beliefs, you may start to hide your beliefs more so that you fit in with the crowd. You may even compromise your beliefs just so that you do not get persecuted anymore. Today, when I was listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, Father Mike read from 2 Maccabees 6. It told the story of a wise old man named Eleazar. The Greeks were trying to get the Jews to become more like the Greeks. They were trying to force Eleazar to eat pork, which was against Jewish laws. His friends were telling him that it would be ok, he could eat whatever meat he wanted to eat, but it would look like he was eating the pork. The Greeks wouldn’t know the difference, and Eleazar wouldn’t have to die. However, Eleazar refused, saying that if people saw him eat the meat and thought that he had gone against the Lord’s law, then they too might sin, and He couldn’t do that. Eleazar was able to withstand the persecution, but what about those who didn’t? Persecution and famine can definitely mess with your head. Most of us don’t want to die, especially if that dying involves torture and a painful death. We also don’t want to starve to death. When you don’t have anything to eat and you haven’t had anything for a very long time, you will do something that you normally wouldn’t. The same goes for how you act when your life is on the line. These things don’t have to separate us from the Lord. If we turn to Him and ask Him for help, we will get the help we are looking for. Remember, it says right in this verse that, “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” We can conquer anything with Christ. He is there for us, and He will help us get through whatever it is we are going through. The only thing we n

Come As You Are Series - The Prodigal SonLuke 15:20-24 “So he set out for his father’s house. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to him, threw his arms around him, and kissed him. Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quickly bring out the finest robe we have and put it on him. Place a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us celebrate with a feast. For this son of mine was dead and has come back to life. He was lost, and now he has been found.’ And they began to celebrate.”I really like hearing other people talk about the various aspects of the Parable of the Prodigal Son. It seems like such a straightforward story to me, at least at first glance. For those who are not aware of the story, let me read it to you.Luke 15:11-32 “The Parable of the Lost (or Prodigal) Son. Then he said: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of your estate that I will inherit.’ And so the father divided the property between them.“A few days later, the younger son gathered together everything he had and traveled to a distant country, where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissolute living. When he had spent it all, a severe famine afflicted that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the local inhabitants who sent him to his farm to feed the pigs. He would have willingly filled his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. “Then he came to his senses and said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more food than they can consume, while here I am, dying of hunger. I will depart from this place and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me like one of your hired workers.” ’“So he set out for his father’s house. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to him, threw his arms around him, and kissed him. Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quickly bring out the finest robe we have and put it on him. Place a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us celebrate with a feast. For this son of mine was dead and has come back to life. He was lost, and now he has been found.’ And they began to celebrate.“Now the elder son had been out in the fields, and as he returned and drew near the house, he could hear the sounds of music and dancing. He summoned one of the servants and inquired what all this meant. The servant replied, ‘Your brother has come home, and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ The elder son then became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him, but he said to his father in reply, ‘All these years I have worked like a slave for you, and I never once disobeyed your orders. Even so, you have never even given me a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours returns after wasting his inheritance from you on prostitutes, you kill the fatted calf for him.’ “Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are with me always, and everything I have is yours. But it was only right that we should celebrate and rejoice because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and now he has been found.’ ”I have heard many people talk about this one parable. Some have focused on the younger son, who took his father’s money and left. Some focus on the father and his willingness and eagerness to forgive. Others focus on the older son who stayed and worked his father’s land. Every time I listen to someone explain this story, I always learn something new. No matter how many times this story is explained, there is a whole new level I didn’t know about. It truly amazes me. Today I want to explain one small part of it that Father Mike explained on day #319 of the Bible in A Year podcast. I thought it was so great, and I think everyone should hear how he explains the interaction between the younger son and his father when he comes home. Father Mike explains that when the younger son is leaving, he is saying he doesn’t want anything to do with his father. He takes the inheritance and leaves. Then he comes home because he is starving. Father Mike and Stephanie Parks, who work for Focus, created this retreat called the Prodigal Son Retreat, and it focuses on the four things the father said when the son came home.First, what does it mean that the father gives him the best robe? In the ancient world, one

Come As You Are Series - BartimaeusMark 10:46-52 “Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately, he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.”How many of us have the faith of this man that Jesus healed? He was sitting on the side of the road, and when he heard Jesus was passing by, he called out to him. The crowd of people told him to be silent, but he continued to call out. How many of us listen when others tell us to be silent? Or worse yet, we don’t feel worthy enough to speak up in the first place, or we are too nervous to speak out and ask for help, fearing rejection. Bartimaeus did not listen when others told him to be quiet. He kept calling out. He believed that Jesus could heal him, and he was not going to let the chance pass him by. Once Jesus heard him calling out, Jesus told the crowd to call him over. When the crowd told Bartimaeus that Jesus would see him, the bible says, “He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.” How great is that? How many of us are jumping up at Jesus’ call? I know it’s different. Jesus was right there, and he got to see him and talk to him. However, we can also talk to Jesus at any time we want to. Even though we cannot see him, he is calling us to him. He wants to invite us into a deeper relationship with him. Do we hear this call? Do we jump up, throw our cloak aside and run to him when we are called? I love the faith that Bartimaeus had. He knew Jesus could heal him. He did not seem to have any doubt that Jesus could cure his blindness. He also didn’t seem to doubt that Jesus would want to help him or to question whether he was worthy enough. He saw Jesus walking by and called out to him. Do we do this? Jesus is here for us; he wants us to call out and to rely on Him. Are we doing that? It seems each week at my Prayer Group, God is showing up for us, and he is telling us to come closer. He keeps telling us to rely on him, that he is our protection and our refuge. Why are we not calling on him more? When Jesus healed Bartimaeus, He said, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” How great would it be to hear those words from Jesus?One scripture verse that I think is amazing and that I struggle with is Mark 11:22. This verse is Jesus’ reply to the cursed fig tree. Jesus said to them in reply, “Have faith in God. Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it shall be done for him.” This is the type of faith that I strive for, yet I sometimes wonder if it’s possible. I wonder if there are humans who can have this type of faith? I know that God can do anything. I truly believe this. And yet, when I think of myself commanding a mountain to be lifted up and thrown into he see, I can’t seem to wrap my head around that. I have searched for this type of faith for a very long time now. Probably since the first time I actually heard this scripture and let it sink in. The very next verse is Mark 11:23, “Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours.” This again just blows me away. All that you ask for shall be yours if you believe. That seems like a lot of pressure, and at the same time, a huge promise on God’s part. As I mentioned earlier, ever since I heard scripture like this, I have sought out this type of faith. I would love to believe without a shadow of a doubt that God can do all the things I ask Him to do, that He will answer all of my prayers. I find it a struggle to believe as much as I would like to, and I wonder if this is because I have a human brain and we were trained from an early age not to believe in things that we can’t see or prove. We were mostly taught that there are certain things that can be done and things that can’t be done. I think as humanity grows, we are learning to question that more and more. But it takes time to overcome years of that type of thinking. I thought I would share one way I have been able to deepen my trust and faith that God can do all He says He can do. I read books about all the miracles God has done and continues to do. I love reading books about healing. God is truly amazing, and He performs miracles every single day. If we were jus

Today’s Witness Wednesday is about my trip to Ecuador. Let me explain in a bit more detail how and why I decided to go to Ecuador. My brother-in-law, Daniel’s best friend, has been in the hospital for a month now. He had a heart attack and then a stroke. Daniel sent me a message asking me to pray for his friend Anival. I then sent this prayer request out to all those I know who could pray for him. Everyone started to pray for him, and I asked Daniel for an update. He said he was still in a coma and they were waiting for him to wake up so they could do the CT scan. However, they were decreasing the sedation, and he wasn’t waking up.Then Daniel asked me for more prayers as they did the CT scan, and it said that there was more damage than they thought. It showed that he still had oxygen bubbles in his brain. When I got this text message from Daniel, I relayed it to all those who were praying for him, as I feel the more specific we can pray for someone, the better, as it shows all the more glory to God when he answers our specific prayers. Then I got another message from Daniel a week or so later, saying that Anival got worse and they need him to start breathing on his own so that he can start eating, as he is not getting enough nutrients.When I got this message from Daniel, I also felt like I got a message from the Holy Spirit asking me to go to Ecuador to pray over Anibal in person. I thought this sounded a bit crazy, so I did what everyone should do when they feel like the Holy Spirit is telling them to do something that seems crazy. I discerned it with my spiritual director. I told her what I thought I heard, and I asked her to pray about it and see what the Holy Spirit says to her about it.She said the first thing she heard was “go” and then she asked Him to confirm it for her. The way this usually happens for her is that she sees the word she heard other places throughout the day. In this instance, she saw what looked like “go” on two different license plates throughout her day. She felt that was the confirmation she was looking for. As I was walking into the prayer group on Thursday morning, I asked the Lord to let me hear something at the meeting that confirmed that He wanted me to go. I was surprised because I didn’t really hear anything during the meeting. Then, at the end, while we were cleaning up, one of our members, who just went to the national conference for Charismatic Catholics in the United States, said, “The main message of the entire conference was to Go Out. Don’t just stay in the comfort of praying within your prayer group, but be bold and go out into the world and pray with others.” I took this as the confirmation that I had asked the Lord for.Now it was time to talk to my husband about it. It was not a good time for me to go to Ecuador, as he works for the government, so he is not getting a paycheck right now. Also, he was going out of the country to visit our son Noah since he is away in Scotland for school and happened to have a week off for his Birthday. Tony is not working and has a free travel credit. They were staying with a friend, so it would not be an expensive trip, and the timing was great for that trip. Another reason the timing wasn’t great for this call to go to Ecuador is that in order for me to go with my sister, Daniel, and their daughter, I would have to leave before Tony got back. This isn’t a big deal, as our kids at home are 17 and 21. They would be fine without us for a night, but it would have been better if we didn’t have to leave them alone for a night.Anyway, I talked with Tony about the trip, and he wasn’t thrilled with the idea of me going, especially since he is not getting paid and we would both be out of the country at the same time. However, he didn’t say I couldn’t go, and I felt strongly that I was supposed to go, so I looked at getting a ticket. Before going to dinner, the tickets were $576. When I got home from dinner and tried to buy the ticket, it had gone up to $698. I went back and forth between Expedia and Travelocity, and I couldn’t find a ticket for less than $600 now. I sent my sister a message explaining that the tickets were too much, and so I didn’t think I could go. Then, I had a chat with God. I explained that there was no way I could spend $700 on a ticket when Tony wasn’t thrilled about me going in the first place. I told him that if he wanted me to go He was going to have to do something about these ticket prices. I switched back to Expedia one last night before giving up for the night, and there was one ticket for $540. Thank you, Jesus!! I bought it and was excited that I would be on my way to Ecuador in just one week.There were lots of things that were trying to get in the way of my going on this trip, which is another way I knew I was supposed to go, and that God was going to move powerfully. Whenever we are about to do some amazing work for the Lord, the enemy tries to put up a million roadblocks. I fought through each one of them

Come As You Are Series - EsterEsther 4:14 For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” I think the story of Esther is a good one for this series. Esther was a young Jewish woman who found favor with the king and became the queen. Her uncle Mordecai adopted her as his own when she was young, as both parents had died. Mordecai had instructed Esther before she met with the king not to reveal that she was Jewish, and she followed his advice. This story tells about how a powerful vizier to the king, named Haman, wanted to kill all the Jews living in the Persian Empire on one day. You see, he was angry because Mordecai refused to bow down to him. Mordecai explained he only bows down to God, and this angered Haman, who told the king that there were people living throughout his kingdom that did not obey the same laws of the king and that he should not tolerate them. He convinced the king to issue a decree that would destroy the Jews, and upon doing so, Haman agreed to put ten thousand silver talents into the royal treasury. When the Jewish people heard, they went into mourning with prayer and fasting. Mordecai got word to Esther and explained the situation. He asked Esther to talk to her husband, the king, and beg for the lives of her people to be spared. Esther explained that if anyone goes in front of the king while he is in the inner courtroom without being summoned, they will suffer immediate death unless he offers them the end of the scepter. Mordecai wrote back the following in Esther 4:14 “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”. Esther risked her life to go in front of the king, and because of her bravery, she saved her people, God’s people. We do not usually know why we end up where we end up or why we go through the things that we go through. God is a mystery, and only he knows what he is doing. He can see the whole picture, past, present, and future. We can only see the past and present. I once heard a quote that I really liked and found comforting during some difficult times. The quote said, “You were assigned this mountain to show others it can be moved.” I found it comforting to think that by making it through the situation, I would show others that they could make it through, too. I also used the quote in reverse and thought, “Ok, then I just need to look for someone who has made it through this type of situation to show me that I could make it through as well.” There is a song by Christina Perri called "I Believe." In that song, she says, “I believe that you fell so that you would land next to me.” Have you ever been in a situation where you could just tell that God arranged it? Sometimes, we can tell what God is doing. Sometimes, we can feel it in our bones that we are exactly where we were meant to be at that precise moment. The reason I think Esther’s story goes well in this series is that she had to go to the Lord and ask Him to save her people. She needed God on her side if she was going to be able to walk into the inner room where her husband was and not suffer immediate death. She was living as a queen and pretending that she wasn’t Jewish. I can imagine it might have been hard to go to the Lord and ask for something, when she was pretending she wasn’t Jewish. I can imagine she might have wondered if God would answer her prayers. Would he be mad at her for not being honest with those around her? Would he want to punish her for not practicing her religion? I can see how she might not have felt worthy to go to the Lord and ask for help.Esther knew the Jewish people needed her, and so she rose above her insecurities. She rose above her fear of dying, and she stepped out in faith that God would not let her and her people perish. She stepped out in faith, and she saved her people. Can you relate to Ester? Have you stepped away from God? Have you pretended that He is not there, or that you weren’t His child? It’s ok. Come back to Him, just as you are, and He will welcome you with open arms. I know this is hard to believe, as that is not how those we know in this world behave. This world is broken, and so are the people living in it. We often struggle to forgive and forget. We hold onto things and resent people for the things that they do.God is not like us. He is for us, not against us. He loves us unconditionally and is just waiting for us to come to him so he can pick us up in His arms and give a giant hug. If you ever wonder what it will be like when you turn back to the Lord. If you ever wonder what God's response will be, you can look in the Bible at Luke 15:20. “ So he set off and went to his father. But whil

Come As You Are Series - The Man With LeprosyMatthew 8:1-4 “When Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him; and there was a leper who came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.” He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I do choose. Be made clean!” Immediately, his leprosy was cleansed. Then Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”This story of the man with leprosy is an excellent example of someone brave enough to come to the Lord, despite the religious and social laws that forbade him from doing so. Back when Jesus walked the earth, “The person with such an infectious disease must wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face, and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’... He must live alone; he must live outside the camp.” (Leviticus 13:45–46) While it wasn’t a civil crime to be around people, it was a religious and social violation that carried serious consequences — it cut you off from worship, fellowship, and daily community life.This man would have known the consequences of coming up to Jesus and talking with Him. He would have known it was forbidden, and yet he was willing to risk it all for the chance that Jesus might heal him. Can we be that brave? Can we approach Jesus with all of our baggage, with the chance that He might be able to heal us, too? What if Jesus could heal your heartache? What if Jesus could heal all of your physical ailments? What if you didn't have to keep feeling whatever you are feeling?Life doesn’t have to get worse before you come to the Lord. Life doesn’t have to get better before you come to the Lord. This man came to Jesus just as he was. He knew he shouldn’t. He knew he wasn’t good enough to go up to Jesus and ask for anything. He knew he could get in trouble for asking Jesus for anything. And yet, he knew he needed Jesus to make him clean. He was willing to take the chance that Jesus could change his whole life. And guess what? Jesus did! He will do the same for you if you ask Him.The man said to Jesus, “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.” He was showing Jesus that he knew how powerful he was. He was trusting in Jesus’s ability. He had the faith he needed to ask Jesus to heal him. Do you remember what Jesus said? He said, “I do choose. Be made clean!” Jesus will say the same for you. He wants all of us to be clean. He wants all of us to be healed and whole. He wants all of us to come to Him and let Him help change us. Can we do that? Can we be brave and ask Jesus?Perhaps some of our hesitation to ask Jesus is that He might say no. I mean, the man with leprosy said, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” What if Jesus doesn’t choose to? What if we ask and He says no, what then? Asking Jesus for a healing takes a level of vulnerability that isn’t always easy, especially if others have hurt us in the past. If we feel we aren’t worthy, then it makes sense we would be nervous to go and ask Jesus for help. What if He says no, and then we are embarrassed that we even asked in the first place?I used to be someone who hated to ask for something unless I knew the answer was yes. I had a somewhat irrational fear of being told no. I would refuse to return things to the store if they didn’t fit me or if I didn’t like them. I would always have Tony do it because I would be afraid they might tell me no, and I would feel stupid for even asking. I would be afraid to go up and ask if my kids could exchange their Happy Meal toy for another one, because what if they said no? It affected so many parts of my life, and yet I just couldn’t do it. It’s one of those things where you have a fear, and then shame about that fear, and then it just adds up.For instance, I would want to just go ask if my kids could exchange their toys, but I was afraid they would say no, and then I would feel embarrassed. Then I would probably start to cry because that is what I do when I am nervous or when I feel embarrassed. Then I would feel even worse because I would be crying for no reason, and so I would cry even more. Then I would also feel bad because my kids really wanted the other toy, and I just couldn’t go up and ask.Eventually, I learned to just ask. It is not a big deal if they say no. You just say, Ok, thanks anyway. I didn’t cry when they said no. I didn’t feel stupid when they said no. Actually, I doubt anyone ever said no. Who cares which toy the kids have? It is very rare that anyone at a store will say you can’t return something. So, most of my fears were not really necessary. Yet, they were very real and kept me from things that I would have liked to do.I get why it might be hard for you to come to the Lord as you are, especially if you fear rejection. I want to assure you that the Lord is different than anyone you have met in this world. He doesn’t reject His children. He wel

Come As You Are Series - The Broken Ones Are Beautiful Too!Romans 7:19-20 Paul said, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me.”God knows we are broken. He knows we struggle. He doesn’t get disappointed. Instead, He celebrates every time we don’t give in to temptation. Every time we mess up, we can bring that to God with the assurance that He welcomes us with open arms and celebrates because we came home instead of being upset we messed up.We live in an age where social media lets us see what everyone is doing. Social media has many benefits. I get to see photos of friends I haven’t talked to in years. We can notify everyone with one post about the biggest things in our lives. We get to post all the amazing things happening in our lives. It also has downsides, and one of them is that people tend to post all the amazing things and leave out all the bad stuff. Which in itself isn’t bad. I mean, who wants to read about negative things? However, when we see all the good and none of the bad, our brain tells us stories about how everyone else has it all together. Everyone else can do all the things, so why can’t we? Why are we struggling when no one else is? Our mind starts to play the comparison game. Comparison is the thief of joy. We can go on Facebook for 20 minutes, then feel terrible, and we can’t figure out why. It’s because we compare ourselves to others and decide everyone else has so much more than we do, they are so much further along than we are, they are happier than we are, and so on. We may not even realize we are doing it. Do you ever notice your mood change after spending time on social media? That could be why.We can do the same thing when we look at the various saints or we look at the people of the Bible. We can look at how God used them and get discouraged. We can tell ourselves He will never use us like He used them. We put them on a pedestal and assume that they were so holy, which is why God used them. We look at all they did for God and are sure they were much holier than we are. We tell ourselves they had it all together; they must have said their prayers perfectly, always worshiped God, and were always perfect. We do this with people we see in church, too. We see the Deacon, the Priest, the minister, and his wife; we think they must be so holy. They must not have the struggles that we have. Let me tell you a little secret: they struggle just like we do. No one is exempt from struggling. No one has this life figured out.I found an article titled' The Bible Heroes Who ‘Failed Forward’ by Greg Laurie. I just want to read you the beginning part, as it shows us that these people came just as they were. They didn’t change before God used them. God knew who they were, and he chose them anyway.Pastor Levi Lusko tells the story of collecting shells on the beach with his daughter Clover. Levi was looking for the nice shells that were in good condition. Meanwhile, Clover was picking up all the broken shells.When her little hands couldn’t hold any more shells, she turned to her father and said, “Daddy, the broken ones are beautiful too.”I think God sees things the same way.The New Testament book of Hebrews includes a collection of great heroes of the faith, men and women whom God used and blessed. I find that interesting because these people messed up. They weren’t perfect examples.But the funny thing is that chapter 11 of Hebrews mentions only their victories and not their mistakes. That is because God sees what we will become, not necessarily what we are.In fact, a lot of people we read about in the Bible messed up. Abraham, the father of faith and of the Jewish people, lied about his wife twice. His son Isaac did the same thing. Sarah, Abraham’s wife, laughed at the promise of God and then denied that she laughed.Jacob lied and connived. Noah got drunk. Samson was immoral. Gideon was fearful. Rahab was a prostitute. David had an affair and then had someone murdered to cover it up. Elijah was deeply depressed and didn’t want to live. And Jonah ran from God. The disciples fell asleep when they should have been praying, and Simon Peter openly denied the Lord. Then there was Moses, who killed a guy.”This article shows us that these amazing people in the Bible weren’t perfect. Could God have selected perfect people to do these things? Yes, absolutely. He is God. He can do whatever He wants. Yet He didn’t. He chose people who had made mistakes. He chose people who had done things that we might think are unforgivable. He chose people who probably didn’t feel up to the task. He chose people who failed more than once. Do you know what these people all had in common? They said yes. Not all of them said yes the first time they were asked, but God wouldn’t have used them if they didn’t cooperate with Him. I love that Greg said in his article that God sees what we will become, not nec

Come As You Are Series - Your Sin Did Not Cause Your IllnessJohn 9:1-3 "As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.”Another reason we might struggle to come to the Lord is that we think our sickness is somehow a punishment for something that we did. We were awful teenagers, so God is repaying us with this chronic pain that we have. We think that our sins from the past are catching up to us, and that is why we got cancer or why our child is sick now, why our loved one is sick. If we look to the Bible, Jesus addresses this for us in today’s verse.You are not sick because of your sins or because God is punishing you? What if you are sick so that God’s works might be revealed in you? What if God is going to use this illness for something amazing? God did not cause you to be sick. God does not cause illness. God is a healer, it says so in Exodus 15:26, which says, “He said, “If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.” However, God can use your illness for all kinds of reasons. I heard a story in a book written by Heidi Baker and her husband. They were trying to heal a man from the Middle East. I can’t remember where exactly she said he was from. Her friends asked them to come because they had had great success in praying over people and having them be healed. The man whom they were praying for was muslim, and so were all of his family members. Heidi and her husband thought that the man would be healed when they prayed over him, and it would be a lot of Glory for God because all those in the room would see him healed and know it was God who did it. They prayed and they prayed, but the man was not healed. They had a trip planned, so they had to leave. However, when they got back, they heard that the man was still alive. They went to visit him, and this time he had twice as many people to visit him because they were sure he was going to die. So all his relatives came, even those from out of town. Their friends asked them to come and pray one more time. So then they prayed over him again, and this time he was healed, and all of his family members became Christians. God used his illness, and he healed him, but he healed him in his timing, not our timing, not like when we thought he would have healed him. And so the same can be true for us.Another saint who had to deal with a lot of illness was St. Teresa of Lisieux, who is another doctor of the church. And yet she died at age 24. She had tuberculosis. Again, she was very dedicated to the Lord. She loved Jesus. She spent so much time in prayer, and she really wanted to be a missionary. That was her goal. That was her dream for how she thought God would use her to take her all over the world to spread the love of God. And yet she never got to go anywhere because she was so sickly.And yet she is the patron saint of missionaries because she prayed for all the missionaries who were there. And her writings and her work are now spread throughout the whole church. So even though she wasn't able to go herself and spread the word, God used her, even with her illness, to become a doctor of the church and to spread the word of the Lord.I just want to encourage all of you that if you're thinking that you can't come to the Lord because you have too much sin, or you're thinking you're sick because of something you did, or you're thinking that God can't use you because of what you've done or because of your illness, I just want to assure you that none of that is true. You're not sick because of your sins. You're not counted out because of anything you've done. God still wants to use you. And all the sins or the illness that you feel have discounted you, God could use them for good. Don’t give up on your hopes and dreams. Don’t let anyone tell you they won’t happen. You have a miraculous God who can make anything happen. Just keep bringing it to the Lord! Just keep coming to the Lord, and He will be there for you!Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to the episode. Lord, you are the almighty one. I ask that you help us realize we are not the cause of our illness. I ask you to help us know that you are not punishing us. Our illness is not from you and is not because of our actions. Help us to know how loved and wanted we are, just as we are. Help us to know how much you truly love us! We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I am sorry I didn’t bring you an episode at the beginning of this week. I was in E

Are We Underestimating Praise?2 Chronicles 20:21-22 "After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: “Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.”As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.”In this chapter of Chronicles, God’s people have armies coming to attack them from three different places. Things were not looking good. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel son of Zechariah as he stood in the assembly. He told the king and all the people of Judah that they shouldn’t be afraid because they was not their fight, it was God’s fight. He told them to march down against the invading armies, but that they would not have to fight the battle. This is where the verse picks up. “After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: “Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.”Jehoshaphat and his army were headed into what seemed like a hopeless battle. There were three different armies waiting to destroy them and to take their land. You would think they would have the soldiers lead them this battle. Even if they trusted God, you would think just to be on the safe side you would have the soldiers go first. However, King Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise Him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out to face the armies. “As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.”Did you catch that last part? It doesn’t say once they started fighting the Lord gave them victory. It doesn’t say their enemy was defeated by their mighty hand. It says as they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against their enemy and they were defeated. They didn’t even have to fight a single person. They didn’t have to lift their hands at all in this fight, they just needed to lift up their voices. Do you have enemies that you need defeated? Are you praising God now while you are in the middle of it, or are you waiting until you get out of it? I have known that praise is important for some time know. I have even done other episodes on how important it is to praise through the storm, not just after it is over. However, I didn’t know about this story. I didn’t know about God destroying three armies with praise alone. Sometimes we are trying to fight our enemies on our own. We know we need God and yet we ask Him for so much we feel we should try to do this one on our own. Yet, instead of leading with praise we lead with anger, frustration, sadness, jealousy and whatever other emotions we are feeling in the moment. Can you think of a time when you have charged into a situation with your emotions leading the way? How did that work out for you? For me, it never works out. When I go into a situation on my own, without inviting the Lord to come with me, it never works out as I intended it to. However, when I do think to praise the Lord while I am in the middle of a difficult situation, it always turns out well. There are times when we think God has abandoned us. We are praying and it does not seem like He is with us. Maybe we are the ones who have abandoned God. We may be praying, but are we praying with a hopeful heart? Are we trusting God will come through for us when we pray? Are we praising God for all He does for us? God is working in our lives every single day, are we praising Him for that? I talk a lot about gratitude because I think it is so important to go through life being grateful for what we have. I think when we are grateful with what we have God blesses us with more. Being grateful is also a great way to shift our mood if we are feeling sad, or having a bad day. Sometimes all it takes is a perspective switch and we can turn our whole day around. Praise is different from gratitude. Sometimes we can be praising God for what we have and what He has done for us and yet praise is so much more than that. We can also praise God fro who He is. Sometimes we are in a situation where we may not want to or be able to praise God for the situation. For instance, in this verse God’s people were not praising God for the situation they were in. They were not grateful they had three armies coming after them. They were praising God for “the splendor of His Holiness.” They were praising God for who He is. He is the the Fountain of Life. He is the great “I AM.” He is the Just One and He is the King of kings. He is the Lord of Lords and He is the Light of the world. He is the Lord our God. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. How often are you praising God for simply being God? How often are you spending time in prayer thanking

Come As You Are Series - Can A Leopard Change Its Spots?Jeremiah 13:23 “Can an Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.”What really struck me when I read this was kind of like an aha moment: we tell ourselves we can't come to God until we have it all together. And yet, we can't get it all together without him.I think that's why the enemy tells us we don't need to go to God. We're not good enough to go to God. Wait a little while, get it all worked out, and then you can go to God. The enemy is putting this in our minds because he knows that on our own, we can't do anything.But through Christ who strengthens us, we can do all things. It really struck me when I read that verse that, yeah, we can't change on our own. So why do we think we can't go to God until we have it all together, until we've figured it out, until we've perfected this or that? When we actually need him to help us, we need him to change our hearts, we need him to change our lives, we need him to show us the way.As I talked about in one of the other devotionals, we need to attach our yoke to God and to Jesus and let them show us the way. All these scriptures are pointing out that we don't have to have it all together. We don't have to know how to pray. We don't have to pray perfectly before we come to God. God wants us to come to him as is, just as we are, and he will help us figure all the rest of it out. He will help make our struggle easier, but we have to come to him.The Lord honors our free will. If we want to go at it alone, if we want to do this life on our own, God's going to let us, and that's because he loves us and because he wants us to love him, truly love him. And you can't have true love if you don't have a choice in it.And so it's very important that we invite God into our struggles, that we invite God into our mess, that we come to God even when we're a mess, and we ask him to help us. Because if we don't invite him in, he's not coming in. He's going to let us do it on our own if that's what we think we want. He's not going to take away our free will.There was an article I read about coming to God as you are, and they had this passage from “Steps to Christ,” and I want to share it with you. "With the rich promises of the Bible before you, can you give place to doubt? Can you believe that when the poor sinner longs to return, longs to forsake his sins, the Lord sternly withholds him from coming to His feet in repentance? Away with such thoughts! Nothing can hurt your own soul more than to entertain such a conception of our heavenly Father. He hates sin, but He loves the sinner, and He gave Himself in the person of Christ, that all who would might be saved and have eternal blessedness in the kingdom of glory. What stronger or more tender language could have been employed than He has chosen in which to express His love toward us? He declares, in Isaiah 49:15, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!”I want you to take a moment and think about your own children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or friends' children. Think about any kids that you've ever been close to. What would you do if they came to you when they had just messed up, when they had done something really bad? Would you turn away from them? Would you want them to have to figure it out on their own before they brought you the situation? Or would you want to be there with them? Would you want to walk through the situation with them hand in hand? One month in mentoring, I was talking about praise and worship, and I was thinking of David and how he always turned back to the Lord, and it's amazing to me. I mean, he murdered someone, and he repented and turned back to the Lord. When he had an affair with Bathsheba, he turned back to the Lord. David was always turning back to the Lord, and I don’t remember ever reading anything where it says he was too ashamed to turn back to the Lord or he felt like he wasn't good enough to turn back to the Lord.When I really thought about David always turning back to the Lord, I just thought, Wow, that is a man who knows his identity in Christ. That is a man who knows his Heavenly Father, and he knows the love that the Father has for him. David was so sure of who God was and the love he had for his people. I mean, David went up against a giant when he was a child because he was sure God had his back. Don’t you just wish you had that faith? Don’t you just wish you knew without a doubt that God was always going to be there for you? Even when you were in danger, in trouble, running for your life, you still knew God was working all things for your good.This is my prayer for myself, each one of you, and honestly, the whole world. I want nothing more than for each person to know how ridiculously loved by God they are and that he is right there with them. I wish everyone knew they

Today, I am bringing you three witnesses from my prayer group. Each week, we take 10 minutes at the end of our prayer meeting, and we thank God for all he is doing in our lives. We share the various ways we have seen God show up in our lives. Each week, people share, and what is amazing is that He shows up in our lives in so many different ways. Sometimes healings, sometimes an outpouring of love or peace, sometimes provisions. So many different ways. If you are looking at ways He is showing up in your life, you will see them too.I wanted to share something about last week's prayer meeting. When we lifted up the basket, I had some really important, not that any of our intercessory prayers or requests are unimportant, just a couple of really big ones, and it was the Feast of the Holy Angels. So I said to my guardian angel, Guardian angel, I can't be there. I know everybody's praying for my things, even though they're not in the basket, but would you take them and put them in the basket?This is in my imagination. And while you're there, would you get all the other guardian angels, all the angels in that room, to lift the basket up to God? There we go. So I'm picturing this. I'm imagining this. But as I see them, or as I'm imagining them lifting it up, all of a sudden, the basket turned golden. Because the prayer meeting was running late, I didn't get to share that. But there's more to it now, because one of my petitions was for a wonderful priest I know who was going for a biopsy that afternoon. And I figured I wouldn't hear from him until I saw him for Mass this coming week. But I got a text message from him that afternoon saying they didn't do the biopsy. They couldn't find the tumor. Last week, I took somebody to one of these places for cancer treatment. And while I'm out in the lobby, I had the opportunity to share with a variety of people of different faiths some of the wonders that God has done, and also share some psalms and stuff. And one particular lady didn't have any hair. She had had a double mastectomy a couple of years ago and had a very severe infection in her chest cavity. Didn't have any teeth and had some major other ailments going on. And I asked her, were you brought up in a faith? And she says, No, no faith at all in the home. And I said, Well, could I share some psalms with you? And I shared like 91. She had tears in her eyes. I shared 100. And when she gets called in, she gets about 15 or 20 feet away, and she turns around and says, This is the first time in two and a half years I've felt peace. Saturday night, I was in an adoration. The same person who told me about the Eucharistic Rosary by Wording Knowledge came in. And I said to her, You've been telling me about all these healings wherever you go. I wonder if you'd want to just pray for me now. I'm not asking for a healing on demand, but, you know, whatever the Lord wants. And I explained to her that chiropractors for years have told me that there's a rotation and a tension in my pelvis so that one leg is twisted up higher than the other, and that throws my gait off balance, and at least our leg isn't bowed down. And I don't want to go back to chiropractors and have them give me a little relief and take a lot of money, you know? I'm just tired of that. And so if the Lord wants to do something about that.First, I felt tingling in one foot, and then tingling in the other foot. But then all of a sudden I felt weak. I couldn't hold myself up. And she said, Oh, the presence of the Lord is so strong, isn't it? And then when she stopped, it was because she had a confirmation that it was done. And so I was standing, I went a little way, and I'm walking like I'm drunk. So that was my sign that the Spirit had been there. So I said, Okay. I wonder how that's going to manifest in my body. Thank you, Lord. It's been so long, part of my lack of faith and all that. Bless her, and just get me home because I drove there.I got on my bed, and I said, Well, let's just see about this. Because if I, on my back, put my legs out straight, my ankle bone here is usually about this far from the other ankle bone. Those ankle bones line right straight up. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord, for all the amazing ways you are working in the lives of those in the prayer group. Thank you to all of those in the prayer group who are willing to share the ways the Lord is working in their lives, so that it can build the faith of all those who hear it. We love you, Lord, you are amazing! 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

Come As You Are Series - I Have Not Come To Call The RighteousLuke 5:30-32 “But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”The theme for the devotional is “Come As You Are.” I chose this because too many of us feel we aren’t worthy to come to God as we are. We think we need to get it all together before we come to God. We believe we have to clean up our lives, and then we can come to God. I can see why we might think this, as that is what society tells us. That is what it looks like on Social media. It seems like everyone else has it all together, so we need to get it together before we're ready to ask God for anything. We can’t attend mass or church service because our kids don’t behave, or we don't have the right clothes, or because we make bad choices.I love a song called Truth Be Told by Matthew West. Let me read you some of the lyrics because I wish we all knew the truth.Lie number one, you're supposed to have it all togetherAnd when they ask how you're doingJust smile and tell them, "Never better."Lie number 2: everybody's life is perfect except yoursSo keep your messes and your woundsAnd your secrets safe with you behind closed doorsTruth be toldThe truth is rarely told, nowI say I'm fine, yeah I'm fine, oh I'm fine, hey I'm fine, but I'm not, I'm brokenAnd when it's out of control, I say it's under control, but it's not, and you know itI don't know why it's so hard to admit itWhen being honest is the only way to fix itThere's no failure, no fallThere's no sin you don't already knowSo let the truth be told How true is this song? We think that we need to keep it all together because everyone else is keeping it all together, but that’s the thing, they aren’t holding it together either. We are all just pretending. I love it when it says, There is no failure, no fall, there’s no sin you don’t already know. Why do we think we need to keep our mess from God when He already knows about all of it? There isn’t anything we can keep from Him, so why are we so ashamed to admit it? The song goes on to say…There's a sign on the door that says, "Come as you are," but I doubt it'Cause if we lived like it was true, every Sunday morning pew would be crowdedBut didn't you say the church should look more like a hospitalA safe place for the sick, the sinner, the scarred, and the prodigalsLike me. Well, truth be told, the truth is rarely told This is where Matthew West reminds us what Jesus said in the verse above. Not what the world says, but what Jesus says. Come as you are. Imagine how full churches would be if everyone knew they could truly come as they were. If we all knew that God wants us, even when we don’t have the right clothes or do the wrong thing. Even when we yelled at our kids or our spouse, even when we stayed out too late drinking, God wants us just as we are. No matter what it is, you can come to the Lord. The song ends with…Can I really stand here unashamed, Knowin' that your love for me won't change?Oh God, if that's really true, then let the truth be told This is the truth that I wish everyone knew. The truth is that God loves us completely and fully before we are even born, and that love never changes. It doesn’t matter what we do or even what we don’t do. He still loves us the same. We can do nothing to make Him love us more or less than he already does. When we see how the world sees us, we think God is the same. We think that we're not worthy of his love until we get it all together.However, in the verse above, Jesus tells us something different. God sent Jesus to die on the cross for us while we were still sinning. If you want to know how much God loves you, it says in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Hear that again: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.This is how God demonstrates his love for us. This one statement shows us that we don't have to be perfect to come to God. Jesus didn’t wait for us to have our lives together before he died on the cross for us, so why should we wait until we figure things out to come to Him?The verse above says that those who are well have no need of a physician. Those who are righteous, those who are not sinning, those who are praying perfectly, and those who are getting it all right have no need for Jesus. Jesus died for us, for you, and me, and he did it strictly because he loved us. He did it because the Lord wanted us to come to him. The Lord didn't want anything to be in between us. When Adam and Eve sinned, there had to be a separation, and God hated that. He hated that we couldn't be with him.He hated that they brought this upon themselves and wanted to redeem them. God could have done that in any number of ways,

Come As You Are Series - Come All Who Are WearyMatthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”This is not the verse I was planning to talk to you about today, but after the night I just had, I am hoping that the Holy Spirit will talk to me as He talks to you tonight. I remember hearing a teaching on this verse once, where they explained why farmers would use a yoke. A yoke is a wooden crosspiece that is fastened around the neck of two animals and then usually hooked to a plow or a cart. This yoke allows them to pull loads that they would not normally be able to pull on their own. I think I also remember the person explaining that a younger animal is usually paired with a more experienced animal. This way, the more experienced animal can set the pace and teach the younger one. This seems to fit so perfectly with this verse. The Lord is calling us, all who are weary and carrying heavy burdens. I don’t know about you, but this evening I am feeling pretty weary, and my burdens are feeling pretty heavy. The Lord is calling us, and it says He will give us rest. God is calling us to take up His yoke and to learn from Him. That is such a great visual for me. I got an image of this giant wooden yoke on the ground. I go up and put my head in it, and God puts His head in, and my burdens are suddenly weightless. I wish it were that simple. I wish we could just hand God our troubles, and then we would feel this enormous weight off our shoulders instantly. I think it can be this simple sometimes. I think we get in our own way sometimes. We want to hand our problems over to God, and yet we also want to hold on to them. We don’t want to completely release them, because then we wouldn’t be in control anymore. Have you heard of the expression, “Hitch your wagon to the right cart?” or “Don’t hitch your wagon to the wrong horse?” Both of these came to my mind when I started talking about what a yoke meant. I was thinking that if I had my choice of anyone to hook my yoke to, it would be the Lord. There is no one else that I would rather rely on and no one more powerful. I love the idea of taking His yoke and learning from Him. The Lord has so much to teach us. Even in this verse, He says, “I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your soul.” How awesome would it be to find rest in your soul? Can you imagine what that would feel like? When I imagine rest in my soul, I imagine peace about all things in life. I imagine I am stress-free and have no anxiety. I imagine I am filled with hope and joy. I really feel as though the Holy Spirit is reminding me of Rick Warren’s definition of joy and wanting me to share it. I have talked about it before, but right now I feel the Holy Spirit telling me that I am not the only one who needs this refresher right now. Rick Warren’s definition of joy is as follows: “Joy is the settled assurance that God is in control of all the details of my life, the quiet confidence that ultimately everything is going to be alright, and the determined choice to praise God in every situation.” Wow, yes, I did need to hear that tonight. For me tonight, this is a reminder that joy doesn’t mean I am always happy about everything. This to me means that it is ok that I am sad tonight about things going on, and that doesn’t mean that the situation has taken away my joy. I do know that God is in control of all the details of my life. I am sure of it. I am grateful for it because He does a much better job than I could do.When I think about it, truly think about it, I do have a quiet confidence that ultimately everything is going to be alright. Does that mean that I know how it is all going to turn out? No, no at all. Does that mean that I know when it will get better? Nope, I don’t know that either. However, I do know that eventually everything is going to be ok. Will it be exactly as I wish it would be, probably not. But that is ok, because God’s plan is better than my plan and His ways are higher than my ways. The last part of this definition is the part that we forget about a lot. It says, “the determined choice to praise God in every situation.” Wow, that is not something I always think of. Then, even when I do think of it, I don’t always want to do it. For instance, tonight was a rough night. Do I want to praise God for tonight? Not really? This is where I think we get confused. We think that praising God is about thanking Him for the situation we are in. There are many ways to praise God without thanking Him for the specific situation.For instance, even though it was a rough night, I am thankful that I have kids to argue with. Some people don’t, and I realize that even when parenting them is difficult, I am still blessed beyond measure that I have them. I am grateful to the

The God of HopeRomans 15:13 “ May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”The God of hope, what a great way to refer to the Lord. He is the God of hope. All hope can be found in Him. I like the thought of God filling me with joy and peace as I trust in Him, don’t you? I feel as though that would be reassurance that we were doing the right thing. Actually now that I just said that I can see how this is the case. When we are trusting in the Lord, we are filled with peace and joy. Can you think of a time when you had a decision to make and you felt completely at peace with it? Can you think of a time when you were so happy and filled with complete joy? Think about these circumstances. Can you see how you were trusting the Lord in them?The second half of 2020 and the first half of 2021 were really tough on our family. Actually they were tough on most families as we were in the middle of a pandemic, and we were stuck in our houses for a lot of it. It was not an easy time for anyone. However, on top of all of this we had a lot of other things going on that made it even more difficult. Probably some of the hardest parenting issues we will ever have to face, and we have faced a lot of parenting issues. Although it was a really difficult time, I was filled with joy and peace for much of that difficult time because I was trusting that the Lord knew what was best. We were encountering situation after situation that we had never encountered before. We didn’t know what to do or how to handle most of it. What do you do when you are in a situation and you don’t know what to do? You turn to the Lord. I spent a lot of time in prayer. I asked the Lord at every turn which way He wanted me to go. I relied on Him to get us through it. I am not saying this to boast at how great I am for turning to the Lord. I turned to Him because I did not know what else to do. This is usually why we turn to the Lord. When we have tried all we can think of on our own and nothing worked. However, I would love to change this. I would love to turn to God first in every circumstance, not just when I feel stuck and don’t know what to do. This is what the Lord wants too. He is always there for us and He is happy when we turn to Him in times of trouble. However, I am sure He would also love it if we turned to Him in our every day decision making. Or, what about when you do know what you want to do? What about stopping to ask God what He thinks about you taking that job you want or buying that car you want. You may already know what you want to do, but what if we stopped to run it by the Lord and see if He thinks it’s a good idea? Sometimes our decisions can be clouded by superficial things or we have the wrong motivation driving our decision making and we don’t realize it until it is too late. Invite the Lord into all your decisions. Wouldn’t it be great to feel that peace and joy of trusting the Lord all the time?This verse ends with, “so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” I don’t know anyone that would turn down the chance to be overflowing with hope. This verse also tells us where hope come from, the power of the Holy Spirit. If we want to have more hope, we just have to ask for it. Jesus tells His disciples in John 16:23-24 “ On that day you will ask nothing of me. Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.” If we want to have more hope in our lives all we need to do is ask the Lord for it and we will receive it by the power of the Holy Spirit. Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord we ask that you fill us all with joy and peace as we trust in you. We all want to overflow with hope, please show us how. Please fill us with the power of the Holy Spirit. Please help those that have given up on hope, or have forgotten how to hope. We love you Lord, you are so amazing. You give us so much to hope for. We are so grateful for all you do for us. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow. Have a blessed day! 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

Come As You Are Series- Mary MagdaleneMark 16:9 “Now when He arose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.”Mary Magdalene is mentioned several times in the Bible. She is mentioned in all four Gospels. That is unusual, as most stories are mentioned in one or two of the Gospels, but very few are mentioned in all four. This shows us how special Mary was to Jesus. It shows what an important role she played in His life. The Bible doesn’t tell us much about who Mary is as a person, but it does tell us a few things.First, it tells us in today’s verse and also in Luke 8:2 that she was delivered from 7 demons. Second, we know she was present at the crucifixion. Third, we know she went to anoint Jesus’s body in the tomb after his death. Lastly, as today’s verse tells us, Jesus appeared to her first after He was resurrected. Of all the people in the world that Jesus could have first shown himself to, He chose Mary Magdalene. That is pretty cool. Again, Jesus is showing us that our ways are not his ways and his ways are not our ways.If we had to choose someone to be the first person who saw Jesus, I don’t think we would have chosen Mary Magdalene. I think if it were me, I would have chosen Mary, his mother. Or what about Peter? He was chosen to be the rock on which the church would be built. Why wasn’t he the first? Jesus is constantly doing things in the Bible that we don’t understand. He is doing and saying things that shake things up. I am sure Jesus had His reasons for choosing Mary Magdalene to be the first to whom he revealed his risen self. I am sure Jesus has his reasons for choosing you, too.Jesus saved Mary Magdalene from 7 demons. Do you feel like you need to be delivered from some demons? Do you feel like you are struggling in an uphill battle? If so, you are not alone. We are all fighting something. One great thing about this story is that it shows us that Jesus doesn’t just heal us or free us from our demons and then walk away. He stayed with Mary Magdalene, and she stayed with Him. She became one of His followers. Are you one of his followers? Do you stay close by Him and listen to all He says? Do you try to get to know Him and to spend time with Him?Mary did. She put in the work. She was so grateful for the freedom that Jesus gave her that she stuck by His side, trying to learn all that she could from Him. We can do this too. We can’t follow Jesus around as one of His disciples anymore, but we can listen to all He says by reading scripture. The New Testament is full of Jesus’s actual words. We don't have to guess who He is, or what He said. It’s all in the New Testament. There are actually verses in the Old Testament that talk about Jesus as well. As you can see, even though Jesus is not walking on earth, we can still be His followers and we can still get to know Him.Even though we don’t know why Jesus chose Mary Magdalene to be the first person to see him alive, we do know that He did choose her. Jesus is choosing you, too. I don’t know what He is choosing you for, but I know that He is. I know you don’t think you are worthy, and you might not even feel up to the challenge, but He is calling you anyway. You might worry that no one will listen to you or that no one will believe you if you try to share the message of the Gospel with others. Guess what? You wouldn’t be the first person they didn’t listen to. The very next verse after today’s verse says, “She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.”Just because Jesus chooses us doesn't mean everything is going to fall into place and be easy. We live in a broken world, and not everyone will see what Jesus sees in you. Not everyone will believe what you have to say. Not everyone will support the calling God has placed on your life. That is ok. Jesus also appeared to two other disciples, and when they told everyone, no one believed them either. Just because others didn’t believe them doesn’t mean what happened wasn’t true.Of all the people in Jesus’s life, He chose the one who had been delivered from demons as the one to reveal His risen self to. He didn’t choose the one we would have chosen. He didn’t choose the one who was perfect and blameless. He didn’t surround himself with people who were perfect and blameless. He surrounded himself with regular, everyday, ordinary people like you and me. We don’t have to clean ourselves up to be around Jesus. We don’t have to heal ourselves of all our demons before we come to Jesus. Jesus healed Mary of her demons. She didn’t wait until she was healed to come to Him. She couldn’t have healed herself of her affliction. She needed to come to Jesus as she was, and He healed her. He will do the same for you. Come to Him with all your baggage. Bring your demons. Bring your fears and your worries. Bring all that you have to the foot of

I have two witnesses for you today. One is from a member of my charismatic prayer group and one is from YouTube. It is from the 700 Club. I will place a link for the video in the show notes. Both of these show how good our God is. The first witness shows how God never forgets our hearts' desires and the second one is a miraculous healing after a heart attack. Let’s begin…Well, when I hit my 30th anniversary, my husband and I went to Italy. Now, when we got married, we got married in front of the Virgin Mary, the side altar, and it was just family because the wedding was too expensive for me, so that's how we did it. We did have a nice meal afterward, but it was simple. And the thing that I wanted most was to hear the Ave Maria sung by this beautiful vocalist at the church, but she was extremely expensive, so I was very disappointed. I had to forgo it because of the price. So then, when I was in Italy, we were in the dining roomOne morning, having breakfast, I kept getting this message from God to get up and to go to the next table where there was a little four-year-old boy sitting with his mother and father, and sing, Santa Claus is coming to town. And I said, well, I couldn't get over it, so it was his birthday. So I put some money in an envelope or whatever I had, and I got up, and my husband was looking at me, and when I started singing, he was like, and I was singing, Santa Claus is coming to town in this dining room with all these people sitting around. So the mother, when I finished, I gave him the envelope, and I said, Happy birthday. So the mother looked at me, and she said,Wow, that is his favorite song in the whole world. Well, okay. So that night, when I entered the big sitting room that they had in this hotel, the woman came over to me, and she said, Oh, you made my son so happy. I want to do something for you. And I said, well, unless you can sing the Ave Maria, because I happen to be thinking about it, I said, really, I'm fine. And she said, Well, as a matter of fact, I'm an opera singer, and I can sing the Ave Maria. And so I went into the dining room for the acoustic part, and she sang me the Ave Maria.Wow. Thank you, Lord. You would have missed it, had you not sung. If I had not sung Santa Claus is coming to town. What time of year is your anniversary? June. You're singing Santa Claus is coming to town in June? June 29th, almost the last day of June, yeah. And my husband was like, Are you kidding me? I would have been so embarrassed. What'swrong with you? Apparently, I don't know. Yep. You're obedient, Mary. Yep, you got what you wanted. He never forgets us. God never forgets the tiniest thing, and He rewards us for our obedience. Miraculous heart healing (CLICK HERE to watch on YouTube). As the band began to start the worship music, I stood and raised my hand in worship. And a woman that I didn't know, I had never seen her before, she walked past me, turned around, and came back and stood nose to nose with me. She said, Fear not, for the Lord your God says you will surely live and not die. I think both of us were a little concerned.Obviously, you'll live and not die. It kind of tells you something is going to happen soon. So both of us were quite concerned and just kind of, Okay, what's going to happen next? Monday came. I just didn't feel quite right. I just felt kind of out of sorts, tired, and not feeling my best. I was sitting on my sofa with my husband, and something's not right. I can't breathe. I said, I need to go to the hospital. We took her immediately to the emergency room. They came out with a wheelchair, wheeled her inside. The whole time, I'm saying to God, Have your hand on her. My vitals are slipping, and I'm saying, Lord, forgive me for everything I’ve ever done.Anything, Lord, that's not pleasing to you. And I saw our pastor lean down and whisper, Remember, Dale, you shall live and not die. They came back, and they said, You've had a heart attack, and it looks like a bad one. And she's going to have to have a stent put in. They did the stent, and the cardiologist said, You should be dead right now. 90% of the people who have the kind of heart attack you've had don't even make it to the hospital, or they die in their sleep at night. The heart attack was so bad that it severely damaged my heart. My heart was functioning at only about 20%. They were so worried that I could have another heart event that they fitted me with a life vest. It's actually a defibrillator that they strap around you with all kinds of monitoring devices on it.Coming back to the house was tough. The only way to get her around was in a wheelchair. My husband had to pretty much just kind of take over whatever was needed. He would not leave my side. And when we got home, every night, every night, he served me communion and prayed. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't bend over. I couldn't do anything. All I could do was just get up, go to the bathroom, and go back and lie right back down because I was terribly,

Come As You Are Series- JonahJonah 1:1-3 “The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai: 'Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.”Jonah is a great person to discuss this morning because we can all relate to him for several reasons. The first one is displayed in this verse. The Lord came to Jonah and asked him to do something, and Jonah ran away from the Lord. How many of us have done that before? Maybe not physically run away like Jonah did, but we do not do what God asks. We tell Him no, with a whole host of reasons why we can’t do it. Or, maybe we ignore the Lord, busy ourselves with work and other things, and pretend that he didn’t ask us to do anything. Both of these are similar to Jonah. The Lord asked Him to do something He didn’t want to do, and so He left.This didn't work out so well for Jonah. He got on a boat headed in the other direction, and God sent a storm to the ship. The other people on the boat asked what was going on. They drew lots to see who was behind this storm, and Jonah drew the short lot. They asked Jonah what they should do, and he said to throw him over the side of the ship into the water. They were afraid to do this, as they knew he was a man of God. They tried to row back to safety, but did not have any luck. So they prayed God would not hold it against him if they killed this man, and then they threw him over the side of the ship.As soon as they threw him over the side of the ship, the raging sea grew calm. “At this, the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.” (Jonah 1:16) These men all became God fearing after God calmed the sea. Even though Jonah was trying to run away from the Lord, God still used that circumstance to bring about the conversion of hearts. God can do the same with our actions. He can take our actions and their consequences and use them for good. He can take them and use them for the conversion of others in ways we can’t even imagine.When they threw Jonah over the side of the boat, he was swallowed up by a whale or some giant sea creature. While he was sitting in the belly of the sea creature, he was praying to the Lord, and the Lord heard his prayers and had the fish spit him out on dry land. Then the Lord tells Jonah to go to Ninevah to give them the message that God gave to Jonah. So, this time, Jonah goes and does what is asked of him. Jonah tells Nineveh that it will be overthrown in 40 days if they do not repent and change their ways. As soon as the king heard this, he declared a fast in the land, and all of Ninevah repented and turned back to the Lord. When the Lord saw how they repented and turned from their evil ways, He relented and did not cause destruction.You would think, after all that, Jonah would be happy. He did what the Lord asked him to do, and the people actually listened to him. Yet, Jonah wasn’t happy. Jonah was upset that God spared the people of Ninevah. He thought that they deserved to die, and he wasn’t happy that they took the second chance and turned from their evil ways. We have all been here in one way or another before. Have you ever been upset that someone got away with something that you think they should have been punished for? Have you ever seen someone do something and then wished they would get in trouble for it? One common example I can think of is when we are driving and see someone else driving unsafely, and we hope they get pulled over by a police officer. It is not our place to decide what should happen to others.God chose Jonah for this task, and Jonah ran from it. How many of us have done that? How many of us have run from a task because we didn’t want to do it? Jonah ran because he knew how good God was. He understood that if Ninevah repented, God would save them, and he didn’t want them to be saved. He didn’t think they deserved it. How many of us have run from a call from the Lord because we disagreed with Him? It might not be the same situation as Jonah, but we disagreed that we were the right people or that we had the skills it took to do what He wanted us to do. We might all have different reasons for running from what the Lord calls us to do.However, Jonah’s story reminds us of a few things. First, just because we ran doesn't mean God gives that call to someone else. He is still waiting for you to do what He called you to do. Second, he can use bad consequences for good, like when Jonah ran from God, and the others on the ship almost died in the storm until they threw him off the ship. God used that to convert the hearts of all those on the ship. Whatever bad came out of you running from the Lord, He can redeem it. He can use it for good. The important thing is that we turn back to the L

Storm-Battered and UnconsoledIsaiah 54:11-14 “O afflicted one,* storm-battered and unconsoled, I lay your pavements in carnelians, your foundations in sapphires; I will make your battlements of rubies, your gates of jewels, and all your walls of precious stones. All your children shall be taught by the LORD; great shall be the peace of your children. In justice shall you be established, far from oppression, you shall not fear, from destruction, it cannot come near. If there be an attack, it is not my doing; whoever attacks shall fall before you.”When I read this verse this morning I knew this was the one. So many are struggling right now. This verse is to show you that God understands. “O afflicted one, storm-battled and unconsoled.” He gets it. He understands how you are feeling. He’s showing you that He sees you. You haven’t somehow escaped His attention. He knows you are suffering and he knows that you are unconsoled. Once He has your attention and lets you know He sees you, then He is telling you that he has laid the way before you with precious stones. “I lay your pavements in carnelians (a semi-precious stone), I lay your foundations in sapphires; I will make your battlements of rubies, your gate of jewels, and all your walls of precious stones.” Actually the Lord is not just talking about laying the road before you, He is talking about building all around you. He talks about the pavements, which I was thinking was the path ahead. However, then He talks about your foundation, your walls, your battlements, and your gates. We all know that if we wish to get anywhere in life, we need to have a firm foundation. If our foundation isn’t firm, it won’t support us. This reminds me of Matthew 7:24-27, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” If we don’t build our house on a firm foundation it will slip away. Next, the Lord talks about our battlements made of rubies. I was not sure what battlements were, so I looked it up. Battlements are the parapets at the top of a wall, especially of a fort or castle, that have regularly spaced squared openings for shooting through. Also, our walls are make of precious stones and our gates of jewels. These are how we defend ourselves. God is building these things for us out of the finest materials. He is our protection and He will make sure we are safe.The next part of the verse says, “All your children shall be taught by the Lord; great shall be the peace of your children.” This might not be your experience right now. You may hear this and wonder when that peace is going to come. I know when I read that line, I thought that is not true for so many children I know these days. I have heard several people say over the last few months that it seems like the enemy is really attacking God’s faithful ones through their children and their marriages. There are so many children struggling right now with so many things. The mental health of our kids is under attack for sure. Also, with social media and constant access to their phones, our children are being bullied in ways we don’t even know. I am surprised at the number of young kids who are willing to send inappropriate photos over the phone because it doesn’t feel like a big deal. It feels like everyone is doing it. I think social media also allows kids to say things that they would never say to someone’s face because they just have to type it into a phone. It gives them a sense that they are somewhat removed from it. I have three teenagers, and I get how hard it can be. If you are listening to this and you either have teenagers or maybe you have teenager grandkids or nieces and nephews, I would say pray for them definitely and also remember this promise from God. “All your children shall be taught by the Lord; great shall be the peace of your children.” God always keeps his promises. He doesn’t tell us when they will have peace, but he tells us they will. Our job is to keep them going through the hard times until they have this peace.The next part may be hard to understand as well.“ In justice shall you be established, far from oppression, you shall not fear, from destruction, it cannot come near.” You will be established in justice, far from oppression, destruction cannot come near. If you are struggling right now, this may be hard to take in. It may be hard to see how you are far from oppression. It may seem like oppression is all around you. You may feel beaten down at every turn. If this is you, remember the ending of that line, destruction cannot come near. A

Could You Perform Miracles?John 14:12-13 “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.”This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. It is one that I read, and when I heard it, I believed it right away. Some verses are like this in the Bible. When you read the Bible, some things are easy to take in and others are difficult. These easy and difficult things are different for everyone. We all have different experiences when we read the Bible because we have all had different experiences throughout our lives. There is a quote by Steven R. Covey that I really like. Steven R. Covey said, “We see the world, not as it is, but as we are.” This is true for the Bible as well. We look at and interpret the things we read in the Bible through our own unique lens. For instance, if we had people letting us down our whole lives, we may read the parts of the Bible that talk about trust and struggle to believe we can trust God because we haven’t been able to trust anyone on earth. If we have grown up in a very unloving environment, we may struggle with the parts of the Bible that talk about unconditional love. Other things may come easier to us. I instantly loved this verse. I know the Bible is God’s Word and that God chose His words very carefully. Sometimes, when we are reading the Bible, there may be a question in our minds about why they used this word vs. that word. One thing I have learned from doing Bible studies is that there is always a reason why certain words were chosen. Also, if you have done Bible studies, you have had the benefit of hearing all about the original Greek or Hebrew words that were used in the original translation and what those words meant. Sometimes, when translated, we don’t have an exact word to mean what they were saying. I find Bible studies fascinating because you gain so much more insight into what the verses are really saying. Anyway, back to the verse. I heard this verse, or read this verse, and I believed Jesus’ word to us. I have never really been one to struggle with trust. I grew up in a loving family, I had great friends growing up, and I am blessed to be able to say I was not let down by those I know and care about, often growing up. Therefore, I trust pretty easily. But what if you don’t trust easily? What if you look at that verse and say there is no way we could perform the works Jesus did, Jesus was God, of course, He performed miracles. Also, the apostles were right there with Him for 3 years during His ministry; of course, they could do miracles too. We can all usually agree that Jesus did miracles when He walked the earth, and we can also usually agree that the apostles were sent out and they performed miracles, too. Where we run into trouble is trying to believe we could do signs and wonders in the world today. Who are we? We are not holy enough, we are not worthy of that power and authority. I agree with both of those statements, and yet Jesus still says we will do the works that He did and even greater works than He did. How is this possible?It is possible through the Holy Spirit. Did you ever realize or notice that there is not a single miracle recorded in the Gospels before Jesus was baptized? Jesus was fully human and fully God the entire time He walked the earth. There was nothing stopping Jesus from performing miracles during the first 30 years of His life. However, He chose to wait until after He was baptized and received the Holy Spirit to start performing miracles. This is something I recently found out and found fascinating. It was not a surprise to me that Jesus did miracles in the Bible; He is God after all. What I didn’t know is that Jesus didn’t use his divinity to perform miracles. He used the Holy Spirit, working through Him, to perform the miracles. He chose to put his divinity aside and act from his human nature, with the help of the Holy Spirit, because it would be greater glory for God. St. Lawrence of Brindisi explains it like this:"Christ came into the world to do battle against Satan, to do away with idolatry, and to turn the world to faith and piety and the worship of the true God. He could have accomplished this by using the weapons of his might and coming as he will come to judge, in glory and majesty… But in order that his victory might be the more glorious, he willed to fight Satan in our weak flesh. It is as if an unarmed man, right hand bound, were to fight with his left hand alone against a powerful enemy; if he emerged victorious, his victory would be regarded as all the more glorious. So Christ conquered Satan with the right hand of his divinity bound, and using against him only the left hand of his weak humanity.”Is this new to you, too? Did you know that God performed these miracles and defeate

Welcome to Witness Wednesday. Today’s witness is from the KLOVE.com website. I love their radio station. Their Music and their DJs are the best. I have been hearing them mention for a while now that they have a tab on their website that is titled God Stories. I thought I would bring you one of these stories today. It is about a woman who started an organization called HER campaign. Here is what I found about this organization on their website.HER Campaign began with a simple but profound mission: to help survivors of human trafficking heal, grow, and find purpose. Since our founding in 2016, we have walked alongside survivors and their families, offering a continuum of care that includes crisis intervention, emergency stabilization, and transitional living programs.Our roots are in Billings, Montana, where we started with a single safe house. Over the years, we’ve expanded to include emergency stabilization programs and advocacy efforts. We believe every survivor has inherent worth, and we are committed to serving them with dignity, respect, and love.Today, I am sharing with you part of a podcast episode she did. CLICK HERE for the link to the website. You can also just go to KLOVE.com and click on God stories. Here is her story.Britney Higgs is one determined woman and a determined follower of Jesus Christ. On foot, she traveled nearly 600 miles from Billings, Montana, to Denver to raise awareness and support for the fight against human trafficking - and the important need to care for those who have been trafficked.“Walking that route was significant on many levels. That interstate corridor is a well-known trafficking route. Traffickers exploit highways and transportation systems for control, from recruitment to moving victims across state lines, especially in areas like Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado, where remote roads and interstate access offer anonymity and opportunity for those who traffic people in darkness. And so, this walk for me wasn't just between two cities. It was to take back ground and prayerfully asking that the Lord would stop the trafficking that is happening between these two areas.” Britney rates the severity of human trafficking in the U.S. as an eight-out-of-ten “It's more widespread than most people realize. It happens in cities, suburbs, and rural areas. But the encouraging part is that God is raising up his church every day, believers to answer this issue in their own communities.” She explains the route she walked and prayed over “is between our two HER Campaign locations, two sanctuaries of healing connected by a road that sadly sees human lives treated like commodities. So, we just made sure that we were walking and partnering with the Lord to say, ‘this will not happen here anymore!’” Britney is deeply involved in the ‘take back’ process as founder of the HER Campaign, which has created two safe homes, one in Billings, the other in Denver, with plans for another location in the Nashville area. The non-profit provides a critical gap service: emergency stabilization programs that offer survivors immediate safety, medical care, counseling, and holistic support.“The first thing a survivor experiences in one of our safe homes is safety. Imagine a woman stepping into a home where, for the first time in a long time, she has a community that is working towards her safety in the mind, body, and spirit to where she can truly rest for the first time… in usually years. We meet her immediate needs. We provide food, clothing, and medical care, and then we surround her with counseling, case management, full body health practices, and prayer. We are at the cutting edge of a program that looks at survivors comprehensively, providing those medical, clinical, and spiritual aspects to really come alongside her and help her to heal, grow, and find purpose.” "HER Campaign is my ‘yes’ to him [God] that is creating safe places for women to experience his healing love," Britney explained the origins and core mission of her organization as a response to a personal call from God.HER Campaign Mission: Bridging the gap between rescue and freedom"We do hear that there is an estimated 300,000 children who are trafficked every year in the United States, and that is not even hitting the adults who are being trafficked. So, we know that this is a huge issue, but that is one that we are called to come alongside right now."She highlighted a severe lack of resources in communities, noting there were only about 2,600 beds available nationwide specifically for trafficking survivors.Combating human trafficking requires collective action and awareness from the entire community, particularly the church, explains Britney.At HER Campaign's safe homes, there are numerous success stories. “One mom came to us broken, having been trafficked since she was a teenager. She went through her emergency stabilization program and a drug recovery program, and today she's reunited with her children and has stepped into a job she love

Come As You Are Series - The Hemorrhaging WomanMark 5:25-34 “Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.” Immediately, her hemorrhage stopped, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, ‘Who touched me?’” He looked all around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”I don’t usually use a whole story for the verse of the day. However, it seemed right this morning. This is a powerful story for this series because it not only shows how powerful this woman’s faith was, but it also shows us how much she needed Jesus. This series is all about how Jesus wants us to come to Him just as we are. I am trying to help you see that you don’t have to get all cleaned up and fix all that is broken before we come to Jesus. Jesus wants us to decide to come to Him just as we are, and then He can help us change. He can help us fix all that is broken. He can help put us back together again.The woman in this story had been bleeding for 12 years. According to Jewish Law, if you are bleeding, you are unclean and therefore must be separated from other people. You could not participate in worship or be a part of the community. Normally, this would just be for a few days during a woman’s menstrual cycle. However, this woman had been bleeding straight for 12 years. That meant she was cut off from the community for 12 years. Imagine all the lies the enemy was telling her. I am sure she felt unworthy, alone, dirty, not pretty, not feminine, and not wanted. She had been to all the doctors, and they kept taking her money but could not find a cure for her. She was tired and alone and felt hopeless. Then she heard about Jesus and how He was healing people. She heard about Jesus and knew He could help her. She needed a healing so bad that she believed even if she just touched his clothes, she would be healed. Imagine that? We, or at least I, get all caught up in what prayer to say, how to word it, what to do before and after I pray. I get all caught up in what I am doing instead of the power that Jesus has. She was focused on the power Jesus had and that if she could just touch His clothes, she would be healed.Have you ever needed Jesus that badly? Have you ever been so desperate for a healing or for love, or for something that you felt you could come to Jesus and all would be well, you would instantly be healed? I know a lot of people who are desperate for healing right now. They would do anything for it and I think if Jesus were walking the earth today, they would have the faith to touch his garments. However, He is not walking the earth today, so now what do we do? That is a great question. How can we be like this woman who touched Jesus’s garments, when He is not physically here.It is important for us to remember what Jesus said to her. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” Her faith made her well. He didn’t say, Daughter, your actions have made you well; go in peace and be healed of your disease.” She wasn’t healed because she touched his garments. She was healed because she knew with her whole being that she would be healed if she could just get close enough to touch Jesus.She wasn’t thinking about how she wasn’t worthy enough to touch Jesus. She wasn’t thinking about how it was against the rules to touch Jesus. She wasn’t thinking about all she “should” do before touching Jesus. For instance, all the rituals to purify herself. The only thing she was thinking about was that Jesus had what she needed and that He was so powerful; if she only touched his garments, she would be healed. When is the last time we believed we didn’t have to do anything but be near Jesus for us to be healed? Have we ever thought that? Have we ever believed that we didn’t have to do anything except be near Jesus in order to be healed?I don’t know about you, but I often feel like I have to do the right things. I have to pray the right way. I have to go to church each Sunday. I have to go to confession. I have to read my Bible. These are not bad things. These are great things, and I do believe they will help me be closer to Jesus. However, I don’t think they are required to have a relationship with Him. I don’t think we need to be doing things perfectly in order to com

Come As You Are Series - The CenturionMatthew 8:5-8 “When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, appealing to him and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible distress.” And he said to him, “I will come and cure him.” The centurion answered, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed.”When asking the Lord who to talk about next in this series, the story of the centurion’s servant came to mind. The story is short, so I will read it to you in case you aren’t familiar with it. Matthew 8:5-13:“When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, appealing to him and saying, 'Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible distress.” And he said to him, “I will come and cure him.” The centurion answered, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and the slave does it.” When Jesus heard him, he was amazed and said to those who followed him, “Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the heirs of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” And to the centurion, Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you according to your faith.” And the servant was healed in that hour.”This story is similar to the one we previously discussed, the Canaanite Woman. What is interesting about both stories is that the faith that healed their loved ones came from people who weren’t even Jewish. This is important for us to see because oftentimes we think we are not holy enough to pray for healing for our loved ones. In my family, everyone goes to my dad for prayer. Actually, it isn’t even just in my family. Everyone who knows my dad will ask him for prayer, even if they aren’t Catholic, and sometimes they don’t even believe in God, but if they need a miracle, they will ask my dad. It seems as if my dad has a direct connection to God. He and my mom are both powerful prayer warriors. I think they go to do my dad more than my mom because he is a deacon in the church. We tend to think that priests and deacons have more clout than we do. We tend to think their prayers are heard more than ours.This story is showing us that we don’t have to be super religious for God to work miracles in our lives. It shows us God is not only healing the loved ones of those who are in church every single Sunday. This story is showing us that anyone can come to God. The centurion soldiers weren’t always kind to the Jewish people, and yet Jesus still healed his servant. We can come to the Lord, no matter where we are in our faith, and He will help us. We don’t have to wait until we go to church every week. We don’t have to wait to come to the Lord until we know exactly what we think and what we believe.This soldier knew that Jesus had authority and that if Jesus said that the servant would be healed, his servant would be healed. The Jewish people were struggling to see that Jesus had authority. They had expected the Savior to look a certain way and to do things a certain way, and Jesus was not what they had expected. The centurion and the Canaanite woman hadn’t heard all the prophecies of what the Savior would look like, where he would come from, and what he would do. They didn’t have expectations. They saw what Jesus was doing for others, and they wanted Him to do it for them, too.This is an important lesson for us too! What if we let go of our expectations of who we think God is, what we think we need to do, and who we think we need to be before we come to God? What if we let go of our expectations of how we think God can help us and when He will help us? What if we accept the fact that God has authority and can do anything whenever He chooses? He doesn’t need us to say the right thing or to do the right thing. He doesn’t need us to ask the right people to pray. We can go to Him, just as we are, and we can ask Him ourselves. We can decide to trust that if God has done it before, He will do it again. If He has done it for others, He will do it for us.We don’t have to worry if our faith is enough. Jesus said we just need the faith of a mustard seed. Think about the Canaanite woman and this centurion. They did not know the Bible. They did not know Jewish law. They didn’t really know anything other than what they saw Jesus do and maybe some things they heard Him say. You don’t have to be a Bible scholar for God to heal your loved ones. You don't have to have all the answers to come to the Lord. He will give you the answers you seek when you come. You don't have to figure things out on your own. He is here to help with all of that. We

Come As You Are Series - The Canaanite Woman’s FaithMatthew 15:28 “Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.”I have heard this story in the Bible many times and I am sure you have too. Right before this verse is the story of the woman who was asking Jesus to heal her daughter. Here is the story found in Matthew 15:21-28 “Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.I have heard several sermons on this story. The focus always seems to be on why Jesus spoke to her the way that He did and why He said the things that He said. I think those are important things to discuss because it sounds like He is being very rude. If you have not heard any sermons or any explanations of why Jesus said the things He said, I recommend you look them up, as it is very interesting. However, what the Holy Spirit highlighted for me for this series is the very last line in this story. Jesus said, “‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.”This came right after the woman said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” What the Holy Spirit told me is that we don’t have to be perfect to receive healing. This woman was not one of the chosen people, and yet she believed that even the crumbs left over after the chosen people had been healed would have enough power to heal her daughter. She knew she wasn’t one of the chosen people. She knew she didn’t have a right to speak to or ask Jesus for anything, let alone a miracle, and yet she was brave enough to ask anyway. It’s interesting, when I read the words, “even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table,” I heard the Holy Spirit say, you are like the crumbs. I had no idea what he meant by this. Then I felt like he was saying, we think we need to be perfect to either ask for healing or pray for others for healing. The Holy Spirit was telling me we don’t have to be perfect. This woman was not perfect, and yet she knew she needed a miracle, and although she didn’t really know Jesus, she believed in His power and knew He could heal her daughter. She knew, without a doubt, that He could heal her daughter. She even said when she called out, “Lord, son of David.” Even his apostles were struggling to see who He truly was, and yet this woman could see. If we want to be used by the Holy Spirit to pray for others, then we don’t need to be perfect; we just need to be willing and humble. This woman humbled herself and knelt before Jesus. She begged Him to heal her daughter. She did not get caught up in what she should or shouldn’t do. She didn’t get caught up in what He was saying or how He was saying it. She needed Him to heal her daughter, and she kept asking and persisting until He did. We can all learn a lot from this woman. Her faith was so powerful that it saved her child. Whom do you know that could use some prayers like this? This woman knew she had nothing to lose and everything to gain by begging Jesus to heal her daughter. Are we playing it too safe with our prayers? Are we holding back when we ask Jesus for healing, or not even asking Him to heal our loved ones, because we don’t want to bother Him, or we don’t feel we are worthy? Are we asking for things, but not the big things, not the things we really want, because we are afraid we won’t get them? Are we protecting ourselves from the letdown of our prayers not being answered, so we don’t ever ask? I know this is for someone today because it is very strong in my thoughts right now. God wants me to tell you to stop holding back and stop playing it small with your prayers. God has some amazing blessings for you, and yet He is waiting for you to ask. He is waiting for you to trust that He will answer your prayers, even if they seem a bit impossible, even if they seem extremely impossible. God is telling us to ask Him anyway! I feel as though He really wants us to understand that we are not bothering Him with our prayers. We honor Him when we pray to Him and ask Him for help, especially when we ask Him for big, bold, audacious things. That is not a word I use often, but I felt that was the word I was suppos

Come As You Are Series (The boy who gave up his lunch)John 6:9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?”This verse is just before the Lord does something amazing! Jesus is speaking to his disciples, and a large crowd has followed Him. They saw all the amazing things Jesus was doing with curing the sick and wanted more. Jesus told his disciples to have everyone sit down and asked how they would feed them. One of the disciples said there was no way they would have enough money to feed that many people. There were 5,000 in all. Then another disciple said that there was a boy who had five barley loaves and two fish. Jesus took those five barley loaves and two fish and broke them up and instructed the disciples to hand them out, and when everyone had their fill, the disciples gathered what was left over, and it filled 12 baskets.I am sure most of us have heard that story before. If you haven’t, you can read the beginning of Chapter 6 in the Gospel of John. It is great. Today, since this series is Come as You Are, I want to focus on the boy who gave up his lunch. We know very little about this boy. They do not talk about him other than that he gave us his lunch, and yet, he was the only one. I wonder why this boy was there that day. Was he with family or friends? How old was this boy? I would think if he were with his parents, they would have said, There is a family with five barley loaves and two fish. So, it doesn’t seem like he was there with family.I wonder if his mom made him that lunch. I wonder why he wanted to go see Jesus. Did he need a healing? Did he have a loved one who needed a healing? Did he just really like what Jesus had to say? Was he drawn to Him? There is so much I would like to know that I never really thought of before now. This story is mostly focused on the miracle, as it should be. Jesus took a very small amount of food and fed 5,000 people with 12 baskets to spare. That is truly incredible!Jesus did not need the boy’s lunch to make this miracle. He could have made bread out of thin air. He made the whole universe. He could certainly have made food for everyone to eat. What I love is that Jesus included this boy in his miracle. He didn’t do it all by himself. He allowed the boy to take part in it by offering his lunch. Imagine how special that boy felt? I am sure that is a day he will never forget. I am sure no one there will forget that day, but this boy especially. He willingly gave up his lunch so that Jesus could feed everyone.Jesus uses people like you and me every day to help Him with miracles. Not because He has to, but because He wants to. He does not use people who are ideally suited for what he needs to accomplish. He uses people who are willing to be used by Him to build up His Kingdom. This boy was not perfectly suited to help Jesus. We don’t know anything about him. He could have been Jewish, but he also could have been a Samaritan or some other nationality. We don’t know. The Bible doesn’t tell us. We don’t know if he was a sinner or not. All we know is that when Andrew asked what the boy had for food, he gave him all he had.The boy said yes. That is all that Jesus requires of us. He just wants our yes. I know you think that you are not who God is looking for. I know that you feel you are too old or too young for God to use you. I know you think you are not enough or too much for God to use you. I know you feel you are not smart enough or holy enough. I know you think there are a million other people out there who are more qualified than you are to do what you believe the Lord is calling you to do. I know you are nervous, and you don’t feel like you know how to do what He is calling you to do. I know because I feel all those things too. We all do.This is the reason I am doing this series. I am praying that by the time we are done with this series, you will begin to see that you are exactly the kind of person God uses. You are perfectly suited for what He is calling you to do. He knows your strengths and weaknesses. He knows what you can and can not do. He actually knows much better than you do what you can and can’t do because He created you. We don’t always know what we can and can not do because sometimes we have had other people telling us that we can’t do something our whole lives, and yet they were wrong. We actually can do it. Or, maybe we have been telling ourselves we can’t do something even though we have never tried it.If God is calling you to it, He will equip you for it. God knew Jesus was going to need to feed 5,000 people on the mountain that day. It was not a surprise to God that all those people followed Jesus. Why do you think that boy was there at the specific moment in time? Why do you think, of all those people, he was the only one to bring food. I wonder if his mom packed him that lunch? I wonder if he argued, as my kids would. No, Mom, I don’t need food. I will be fine. It's just a talk, I’ll

Today’s Witnesses are both from the Encounter Ministries YouTube Page. The first one I just learned about today, and the second one I have had on here before. However, someone in my Big Life mentoring group was asking for prayers for her daughter, who has stage 4 cancer. It is easy to believe the doctors when they say there is nothing they can do about it and that stage 4 is terminal. However, only God gets to decide when we enter and exit this world. I wanted to find some testimonials of people with stage four cancer who have been healed, as it is easier to believe God will do it for us and our loved ones if we hear how he did it for someone else and their loved ones. God is still healing today. We need to keep believing. He needs to keep hoping. Hope in the Lord does not disappoint. (Romans 5:5) I pray that after hearing these testimonies, your faith will grow, even just a little. All we need is the faith of a mustard seed.Hi, my name is Roxanne, and I was healed of inoperable ovarian cancer. I had excruciating pain in my abdomen, and they rushed me to the emergency room. I had emergency surgery. I woke up and I asked my husband, Okay, how did it go? And he just said, You have cancer. The doctor came in and they said, No, it's not colon cancer, but it's ovarian cancer. That spread. That had spread. I'm like, okay, well, there's still hope. And she looked at me, and she's like, No, you have stage four cancer. There's no hope.There were some big tumors, but it actually kind of looked like there wasconfetti of all the tumors. It wrapped around the colon, which is what caused the pain initially, and then wrapped itself around other vital areas like blood supplies, was very close to the pancreas, the stomach, everything. Her husband was in a really, mentally, a really bad place, really negative, very, very angry. And we thought, okay, let's just lean into this. Let's go to the healing service.It was November 3rd or 4th. At the healing service, the priest said, “Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus because in his eyes is the history of his passion for you.” And, you know, he calls out different ailments, and then he called out cancer. Stand up if anyone has cancer. I stood up, and it felt like everybody in the church came over and prayed over me. And then we got in line to do individual healings, and we ended up with Father Jason, another individual. We didn't know Father Jason. I've never seen him before. So he did start praying over me, and then Eric started praying over me. And as he was praying over me, I felt this burning in my side, which was where the inoperable tumor was. Father Jason said, “So when Roxanne and Eric came for prayer, I was like, God's got this, you know, let's go for it. And so we prayed for the Holy Spirit to come down. I prayed that the Holy Fire of the Holy Spirit would consume the cancer in Roxanne's body. And she said that she felt heat. And when I heard that, I was very encouraged. And I said, that's a good sign. And let's press into that. Let's keep praying more, Lord, more Holy Spirit, more fire.”Father Jason continued to pray, Holy Spirit, burn the cancer out. It really got intense with the Holy Spirit, burn that cancer right out. You know, all the anger and where her husband’s head was at before that, it seemed like it cleared out. He felt like God has this in some way. I don't know how, but just stop being angry about it. And then December 12th was the Feast of the Holy Day of Guadalupe, which we're having surgery on your feast day for a reason. Please, you know, help, help, help us, right? Help us get through this. Help Roxanne get through this. And then I just sat in the waiting room and prayed.And nine hours later, uh, the surgeon actually comes out. But good news. We were able to reverse everything. And I said, What do you mean? And she said, Well, yeah, we didn't, we didn't see any visible cancer in Roxanne's body. Sorry. We didn't see any visible cancer in Roxanne's body. So we were able to reverse everything. Anything that looked suspicious or like scar tissue, we removed it. They called it dropped all the ostomies, so her bag was gone. The colorectal surgeon comes in. She's like, yeah, it was very successful. And all we saw was a lot of scar tissue. That's why they took hours and hours just to pull, pull apart, and separate the, uh, the bowels because they were trying to search and find anything. Right. They spent hours just searching, and all the scar tissue made it difficult. She's like, yeah, we always saw a lot of scar tissue and burned-out tumors. And I was like, what? What did you say? Yeah, scar tissue and a burned-out tumor. And immediately I thought, well, you know, the words had come out during the healing service. I just couldn't comprehend it at that point. I was blown away. Right. A gynecology oncologist came in, and she's like, Did you see the pathology report? No. She's like, I wanted to come down and tell you. We didn't see any cancers or any of the biopsies o

Come As You Are Series - Hagar Genesis 16:7-8 “Now the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s slave woman, from where have you come, and where are you going?” And she said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.”God promised Abraham that he would be the Father of nations. His descendants would be more numerous than the stars in the sky. Yet Abraham was 86 years old at this point in his life, and he still had no children. His wife was getting impatient. She was 75 years old and still had no children. One day, she told Abraham that she wanted him to sleep with her handmaid. She thought maybe that was the way she was going to get the children that God promised her.We might think this is crazy, as we don’t really live in a culture where this is normal. Unfortunately, it was more normal back then. Even though we might not be able to identify with Sarai giving her handmaid, Hagar, to her husband so that she could have some children, we can definitely relate to being impatient waiting for God to fulfill His promises. We want everything in our time, and when it doesn’t happen, we try to make it happen.Have you ever done this? Have you ever gotten tired of waiting for the Lord to do what He said he would do, so you took matters into your own hands? I know I have. I am sure we all have at one point or another. We are human. God’s ways are higher than our ways, which means we don’t understand them. We don’t know why God told Abraham he would be the father of nations 25 years before his only son would be born. We don’t know why God said He would be the father of nations and His descendants would outnumber the stars, yet He only had one child. We don’t always know what God is doing.What we do know is that when we try to take over for God and do it our own way or in our own timing, then we create a mess. Sarai thought she could give her handmaid to her husband, and all would be fine. The handmaid would have children, but Saria and Abraham would raise them as their own. However, once the handmaid Hagar got pregnant and realized she was pregnant, she looked at her mistress with contempt. Sarai became upset and started mistreating her. Isn’t this just like us? We do something we think will fix the situation, and surprise, surprise, our idea wasn't actually better than the Lord’s idea, and it all just backfires. Now Sarai is mad at her Hagar because she is acting like she is better than Sarai. After all, she could get pregnant, and Sarai couldn’t. However, it was Sarai’s idea in the first place. This is exactly how this world operates. We take things into our own hands and then get upset when it doesn’t work out.Hagar got tired of being mistreated and ran away. However, an angel appeared to her. Let’s stop right there. Hagar is a maidservant who married her mistress’s husband so that they could have a baby. Does that sound like someone an angel would visit? Do you see how God doesn’t choose the people we would choose? Hagar was put in a bad position and yet did what she was told to do. Everything worked out exactly like her mistress wanted, and then her mistress began to treat her badly.God didn’t forget her or forsake her, though. He could have let her run away. The baby she was carrying was not the baby that God had promised them. However, he sent an angel to have her go back and have the baby with her husband. The angel told Hagar that she would have a boy and that he would be called Ishmael. The angel said to her that God had heard her affliction. Imagine what it would be like to have an angel appear to you and tell you that God has heard you? How many of your prayers right now do you wish you knew if God heard or not? Wouldn’t it be great if an angel came down and told us that God has listened to our affliction?Sometimes it feels like we are talking to ourselves because we are waiting and waiting for an answer, and it doesn’t seem to come. God hears all our prayers. It says this in many places in the Bible. We know this, and yet it would still be nice if God sent an angel to reassure us. The angels would be pretty busy if they needed to come and reassure us every time we doubted that God heard our prayers. God did send an angel to visit Hagar another time, too. After Isaac was born and weaned, Sarah told Abraham to send Hagar away. Abraham was sad as Ismael was his son. However, God told him to do as Sarah wanted.Here is another instance where we might not understand why God would want Abraham to send Hagar and his son away. We trust that God’s plan is better than our plan. Hagar sleeping with Abraham was never part of God’s plan. He told Abraham and Sarah that they would have a baby and that God would make Abraham the father of nations. Yet, when it didn’t happen soon enough for them, they took matters into their own hands. God wanted to fulfill his promise to Abraham through Isaac, not Ismael.Hagar left, but she was

Testing of Faith Produces PerseveranceJames 1:2 -4 & 12 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”This is a pretty tall order. This verse asks us to consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds because we know that testing of our faith produces perseverance. I understand what the verse is saying. I understand the concept. I am just not sure I understand how to do this. I’m not sure joy would be the word I would use when I am undergoing trials. I would say words like sad, frustrated, mad, angry, annoyed, scared, lonely and defeated seem more like what I feel when I am going through trials. So, why is this verse telling us to feel joy? We often ask why we have to struggle? We ask why we have to face various kids of trials? I have learned from Father Mike that there isn’t just one reason why we find ourselves in trials. Father Mike states several times in his Bible in a Year podcast that sometimes we do find ourselves in difficult trials because of something we have done. Sometimes we go against what the Lord wants us to do and there are consequences for that. Other times, the situation we are in is not of our own doing and does not mean that we did anything wrong. For instance, Job, he was a righteous in the eyes of the Lord, yet he suffered terribly. Not all suffering is a result of sin. Another example, of this is found in John 9:1-3 “As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”Do you see the reasons for your trials can vary. I think a lot of us think if we are struggling, then we must have done something to deserve it. God must be punishing us in some way. I have heard that one a lot. Jesus is telling us right here in the Bible, your trials are not always because of sin. Sometimes your trials are to show the work of God in your life. It is rare that you know the reason for your struggle while you are in it. However, even if you did, I am not sure it would make it easier. Take this verse for instance. It says that when our faith is tested we gain perseverance. Perseverance is great. It is often times the thing that gets us through our trials. I find it interesting that in order for our perseverance to grow we need to go through trails, yet our perseverance is what helps us get through those trials. I am glad that I have gained a lot of perseverance over the years. Even though I know that I will gain perseverance when I go through a hard time, it doesn’t make that hard time easier. The rest of the verse says to “Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.” That all sounds wonderful. I definitely want to be mature and not lacking in anything. I also definitely want to receive the crown of life. The problem is, I don’t know how to remain steadfast under trial. I don’t know how to consider it joy that I have trials. I know what the Lord wants me to do, I am just not sure how to do it. I love how the Lord always gives us answers. I was just thinking that it would be nice if I could give you guys some tips on how to stay steadfast under trials and I did a quick internet search and found some. The article I found is titled Six ways to remain steadfast during trials and it is written by Dan Panetti. (CLICK HERE for article) I will post a link to the article in the show notes, but I will list Dan’s six ideas here as well.Focus on what you can control—not on what you can’t (Prov. 3:5–6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”)Live in the moment—refuse to be anxious about tomorrow (Matt. 6:34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”)Look for ways to break up the monotony—tackle a home improvement project or learn to play a new card game. One of my sons proposed that I come up with a question for each family member to be researched and presented around the dinner table. It has sparked some of the best conversations we have ever had. Relax and take a walk—meditate on the ways that God has provided for you, delivered you from death, given you a purpose, and equipped you for his service (Psalm 116:

Come As You Are Series- JosephGenesis 37:3-4 “Now, Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a long robe with sleeves. But when his brother saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him.”When I was thinking about what to write about Joseph, I thought about how we all get stuck in family drama. I really don’t think there is any escaping it. If we have siblings, then we have either been the favorite child, been jealous of the favorite child, or both at different times in our lives. I remember when I was young, I thought my little brother was spoiled. I felt my mom did everything for him. In my eyes, she went to watch all his football games; she would even watch his practices when he was younger. She would go to all his plays. Yet there was at least one or two times when she didn’t pick me up from practice. She said she figured someone else would bring me home. Which they would have had I known she wasn’t coming.What I can see now, that I couldn’t see then, is that it wasn’t because she didn’t want to be at my things too. It was that she had three little ones at home. Of course, she could go see my youngest brother's stuff because she didn’t have any other little ones at home to take care of. She did have to try to concentrate on watching him while three little ones ran around, making her crazy. I am sure we all have stories of how our parents treated our siblings differently from how they treated us. However, this family drama is documented in the Bible.It was true that Israel loved Joseph more than his brothers. Israel had 12 sons, and he gave Joseph a special coat to let him know how special he was. I can’t fault the brothers for being angry; I would be angry, too. Joseph didn’t help himself out either because he had a dream, and when he told his brothers, it only fueled the flames of hatred. Here is what he told them, “Hear this dream which I have dreamed: behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright; and behold, your sheaves gathered round it and bowed down to my sheaf.”His brothers were so angry that they decided that they were going to kill him. But one of his brothers decided they shouldn’t kill him; they should throw him in a pit in the wilderness. After they threw him in a pit, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming and decided to sell him to them instead of having him die. That way, they get something out of the deal. Things were not looking good for Joseph.Joseph was taken down to Egypt and was sold to an officer of the Pharaoh, the captain of the guard. However, the Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man. His master saw that the Lord was with him and put him in charge of all that he had. Joseph was very handsome, and his master’s wife wanted to sleep with Joseph. Joseph refused day after day, and one day she trapped him, and when he still wouldn’t sleep with her, she lied and said he tried to take advantage of her, and Joseph was thrown in prison. Again, things were not looking good for Joseph.However, the Lord was with Joseph in prison, and the prison keeper put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners, and whatever was done in prison, Joseph would do it. Whatever Joseph did prospered, even in prison. There were two prisoners who had dreams they didn’t understand. Joseph was able to interpret them, and the prisoners were grateful. One of those prisoners was released from prison, and Joseph said not to forget about him. However, he did forget for two whole years. Then the Pharaoh had a dream and no one in the land could interpret it, so the prisoner who was released remembered Joseph and told the Pharaoh about him, and the Pharaoh called on Joseph to interpret his dream, and Joseph did. Pharaoh was so impressed that he put Joseph in charge of all that he had. Joseph was second only to Pharaoh in Egypt.While I was writing this, I kept asking the Lord, Why are we going into all of this when this is a series about come as you are. I believe the Lord wants us to see how Joseph did not try to change himself for others. He did not try to hide who he was from his brothers. He was honest with them. We might see this as bragging, and maybe it was. Joseph was just a kid. What if it wasn’t bragging, though? What if Joseph was just trying to talk to his brothers about his dream? Maybe he was looking for help interpreting it. We don’t know why Joseph told his brothers, but what we do know is that Joseph never tried to hide who he was from his brothers. If he had tried to pretend to be someone else, maybe they wouldn’t have hated him so much and sold him into slavery. Have you ever pretended to be someone else just so your family would like you more?When the wife of his master approached Joseph, he could have slept with her. He might have been able to avoid prison if he had. However, that is not who he was. He appreciat

Good morning everyone! I am so sorry that I completely forgot yesterday was Wednesday and yet I didn’t want you to miss out on Witness Wednesday this week. Today I will be reading to you the story of Sophia. She is a 12 year old student who was shot and nearly killed during Mass at the Annunciation Catholic School in August. First I will read the prayer request I recieved from several people and then the article a friend sent about her recovery.A friend whose brother-in-law teaches at Annunciation is passing along an urgent prayer request from the dad of Sophia, who's still in intensive care...Sophia's brain swelling needs to stop now and recede.🙏 Half her skull has been removed thus far to relieve pressure and the remaining will need to be removed unless the swelling stops. Sophia's dad asked to share this with as many people as possible for prayers.Now here is the articleSophia Forchas, who was shot and nearly killed during Mass at Annunciation Catholic School in August, has made significant progress in her recovery, said an update from her parents.Sophia Forchas, the 12-year-old student from Annunciation Catholic School whose doctors feared could become the third victim of the mass shooting committed during her school's Mass in August, will soon be moving to inpatient rehabilitation to continue recovering."Sophia is winning! Your Prayers are working," said a September 22 statement from the Forchas family posted on a GoFundMe fundraiser page.Sophia is the last Annunciation Catholic School student still hospitalized after the shooting that killed two of her classmates and injured nearly two dozen others.The family thanked everyone for their "continued prayers, the outpouring of love, and the tremendous support for our precious Sophia. We are humbled by the countless individuals across the globe who have lifted her up in prayer, including His All-Holiness Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew and His Holiness Pope Leo XIV."The Forchas family attends a Greek Orthodox parish in the Minneapolis area."Your prayers have been powerful. Sophia surviving this horrific attack is a miracle. Her healing progress is nothing short of miraculous; an undeniable testament to the mercy and intervention of our Lord Jesus Christ," said the family's statement.Each day, the Forchas family has received "new revelations of moments and circumstances that kept her alive and made her recovery possible.""There are simply too many to be dismissed as coincidence. God has heard our prayers and wrapped Sophia in His healing embrace," said the family.Inspiring hopeSince the shooting, Sophia has continued to make "steady progress" and has shown "promising signs of neurological recovery."Her doctors, who once thought she was not going to survive, are now "cautiously optimistic," and she is set to move this week from an acute care setting to an inpatient rehabilitation program, said the family."Though she still has a long journey ahead, filled with extensive therapy, her resilience continues to inspire hope at every step," said the Forchas family. The family asked that people "continue to pray for her as she walks this road to recovery.""It is by God’s will that she has come this far. We are eternally grateful to our loving Father, who hears and answers prayers. We also extend our heartfelt thanks to the extraordinary staff of Hennepin Healthcare at HCMC for their tireless dedication and world-class care."Echoing the words of Annunciation Catholic School's Principal Matt DeBoer, the Forchas family asked that people keep praying for their daughter and for the world."Please continue to pray. Pray for peace and when you pray, move your feet," said the family."Let us worship God together and walk forward in Faith, Hope, and Love. Together we can create a better tomorrow." 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

Looking Foolish For JesusNumbers 11:23 “The LORD answered Moses: Is this beyond the LORD’s reach? You shall see now whether or not what I have said to you takes place.”I have been reading two books lately that have really got me thinking about how I pray. One is called The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson, and the other is called The Cross and the Switch Blade by David Wilkerson. Both books have similar themes. One central theme seems to be praying boldly and specifically. They both talk about how if we want to see extraordinary things, we need to be willing to look foolish sometimes. Here is a short excerpt from the book The Circle Maker. “Faith is the willingness to look foolish. Noah looked foolish building a boat in a desert. The Israelite army looked foolish, marching around Jericho, blowing trumpets. A shepherd boy named David looked foolish charging a giant with a sling shot. The Magi looked foolish tracking a star to Timbuktu. Peter looked foolish getting out of the boat in the sea of Galilee, and Jesus looked foolish wearing a crown of thorns. But the results speak for themselves. Noah was saved from the flood, the walls of Jericho came tumbling down, David defeated Goliath, the magi discovered the Messiah, Peter walked on water, and Jesus was crowned king of kings. Foolishness is a feeling that Moses was very familiar with. He had to feel foolish going before the pharaoh and demanding that he let God's people go. He felt foolish raising his staff over the Red Sea, and he most certainly felt foolish promising meat to eat for the entire nation of Israel in the middle of the wilderness, but his willingness to look foolish resulted in epic miracles: the exodus of Israel out of Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, and the quail miracle.” The quail miracle is what I want to talk to you about today. God had saved the Israelites from Egypt; he was providing a miracle for them every single day by providing manna, and yet they were not happy. They were complaining about not having meat to eat. They were talking about all the good things they had to eat when they were in Egypt and reminiscing as if those were good times because they had so much free food and fish. But they're forgetting that the food was free because they were not; they were slaves. In Numbers 11:10-15, Moses hears the people complaining and asks God why he treats him so badly as to give him the responsibility of all these people. Then in Numbers 11:18-21 God says, “To the people, however, you shall say: 'Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, when you shall have meat to eat. For in the hearing of the LORD you have cried, ‘If only we had meat for food! Oh, how well off we were in Egypt! Therefore, the LORD will give you meat to eat, and you will eat it, not for one day, or two days, or five, or ten, or twenty days, but for a whole month—until it comes out of your very nostrils and becomes loathsome to you. For you have rejected the LORD who is in your midst, and in his presence you have cried, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’” This is one of those times I talked about earlier when sometimes faith requires you to look a little foolish. Moses did not understand how there could be enough meat to feed all these people for a whole month. He even questioned God about this. In Numbers 11:22, Moses asks, “The people around me include six hundred thousand soldiers; yet you say, ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month.’ Can enough sheep and cattle be slaughtered for them? If all the fish of the sea were caught for them, would they have enough?” I find this remarkable and comforting. After all the truly extraordinary miracles Moses has seen, he still questions the Lord when he tells him something. I find it remarkable because I would think by now, he would know to just trust God. I find it comforting because if someone who is as close to the Lord as Moses was can question or doubt the Lord, then I don’t have to be so hard on myself when I do it. Moses could not see how this could happen; the math did not add up. Then the next verse is one that we should ask ourselves often, especially when we are facing a situation that seems impossible. Numbers 11:23 says, “The LORD answered Moses: Is this beyond the LORD’s reach? You shall see now whether or not what I have said to you takes place.” Wow, is this beyond the Lord’s reach? What a great question! And I hope we all know the answer is No, nothing is beyond the Lord’s reach. I wonder what Moses was thinking in that moment when God said that to him. He was probably feeling the same way we feel when our parents ask us a question that we ought to know the answer to. After this talk with God, Moses had a decision to make. Was he going to trust God and go out in front of his 600,000 soldiers and tell them that God would provide them with meat for a month? Would he put his reputation on the line to say something that he himself had trouble believing? I think a lot of us find ourselves in this situation more often th

Come As You Are Series - Elijah1 Kings 19:3-4 “And he was afraid, and got up and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah; and he left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree; and he asked for himself to die, and said, “Enough! Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”Elijah is someone we can relate to. He is so real and down to earth. He is a good example to us of real faith. In 1 Kings 18, Elijah gets word from the Lord that he is to go show himself to King Ahab. At this time, God’s people were worshiping Baals, the false Gods, and the Lord was not happy. God sent Elijah to show His people He was the one true God. Elijah asked the priest to call all the prophets of the false Gods to the top of Mount Carmel. He called all the people of Israel as well.Once they were all gathered, Elijah told them to build an altar to their God, and he would build an altar to his God. They would take two bulls and each sacrifice one. They would get the sacrifice ready, but would not light it on fire. They would call upon their gods to consume the sacrifice with fire. The false prophets did as they were told, and they called upon Baal all day, but he did not answer them. There was no fire.Then Elijah called the Israelites closer to him, and he rebuilt the altar that used to be there. He also built a trench around the altar. He told the people to get four buckets of water and dump them on the offering and the wood. He had them do this three times. There was so much water that the wood was drenched, and it filled the trench. Then Elijah said, “Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, today let it be known that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. Answer me, Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that You, Lord, are God, and that You have turned their heart back.” (1Kings 18:36-37) The Lord sent fire so hot that it consumed the offering, the stones, and even all the water in the trench.The people of Israel immediately fell to their faces and said, “The Lord, He is God.” Elijah had them gather all the false prophets, and he killed them. When Jezebel, Ahab’s wife, heard this, she vowed to kill Elijah. This is where today’s verse comes in. It says, “And he was afraid, and got up and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah; and he left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree; and he asked for himself to die, and said, “Enough! Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”The reason I said earlier that Elijah was someone we can all relate to is that even though he was just able to call down the fire of the Lord, he is still scared when he finds out his life is in danger. Sometimes we think that if we get scared of something, it must mean that we don’t trust God. This story is a great example to show us that it is not true. Elijah called all the people of Israel up on the mountain to see God show His power. He also called 450 false prophets there to tell them to call on their God to consume their sacrifice. This requires a great deal of trust in the Lord. He had to trust that he was really hearing from the Lord. He had to trust that God would show up and consume the sacrifice. He also had to trust that the false God would not show up.God was speaking directly to Elijah. Elijah heard God, did what God told him to do, and then saw God show up in a powerful way. Elijah knows how powerful God is. He knows there is nothing God can’t do. Yet, right after this amazing demonstration of his faith and God’s power, someone threatens his life, and he is afraid and runs for his life. He not only runs for his life, but he also asks to die. It is crazy how quickly our emotions and feelings can change. I would say that the experience on Mt. Carmel would have had Elijah on a high for days or weeks. He literally called down fire from the Lord. How cool is that? However, almost immediately after that he is running for his life and asking to die.This is how it can be with us as well. Some days we see God do incredible things and know without a doubt He is our Lord and Savior. We trust Him completely. Then something awful happens, and we don’t know what to do. We forget to turn to the Lord. We forget how powerful He is. We just get so stuck in the moment and the fear of the situation. Being afraid doesn’t mean we don’t trust God. We all have weak moments; we are all human. Elijah knew God in a special way. They had a relationship, and Elijah could hear the Lord when He talked to Him.Elijah had just called down fire from heaven. I would think if Jezebel was threatening his life, he could call on the Lord to protect him. Reading this, you wouldn’t think that he had any reason to be scared. The Lord is for him, and the Lord is powerful. However, that is not

Come As You Are Series - David1 Samuel 16:12-13 “So he sent word and brought him in. Now he was reddish, with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him; for this is he.” So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel set out and went to Ramah.”We have been talking a lot about how God doesn’t always choose the people we think He would choose. If we were in charge, we would probably choose other people as the ones God chooses are flawed, and they make mistakes.They are not the people who get it all right. They are not the people who have it all figured out. They are not the people who look like they fit the part. This is David. He is not the one who looks like he would fit the part. Although this verse does say that he had beautiful eyes and he had a handsome appearance, his brothers looked like they would fit the role of king better. This is not my opinion; this is what it says in the Bible.In 1 Samuel 16, God sent Samuel to the house of Jesse to anoint the next king, as the Lord had rejected Saul. Listen to what happened when Samuel arrived at Jesse’s house. 1 Samuel 16:6-11 “When they entered, he looked at Eliab and thought, 'Surely the Lord’s anointed is standing before Him.” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God does not see as man sees, since man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass before Samuel. But he said, “The Lord has not chosen this one, either.” Next Jesse had Shammah pass by. And he said, “The Lord has not chosen this one, either.” So Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel. But Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen these.” Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are these all the boys?” And he said, “The youngest is still left, but behold, he is tending the sheep.” So Samuel said to Jesse, “Send word and bring him, for we will not take our places at the table until he comes here.”Samuel thought he knew who God had chosen because when he saw Eliab, he thought he looked kingly. He had the stature of a king. One thing that I think is so telling is that God says, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God does not see as man sees, since man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” David lived 3000 years before Jesus, who lived 2000 years before now, and people were still judging by the outward appearance, while God is looking at our hearts. You would think after 5,000 years, we might learn to look at people’s hearts instead of their outside appearance, and yet, we haven’t learned that yet.God chose David to be king even though he had seven other brothers who could have been chosen. David was chosen even though his brothers looked like they fit the part better. His brothers, at least some of them, were soldiers in the military. David didn’t have that training. When Samuel asked Jesse to present his sons to him, he didn’t even invite David. That is how sure his family was that he would not be chosen. Does this sound familiar? Has your family counted you out so many times you can’t even count? Have they just assumed you couldn’t do it or that you weren’t the right person for the job?I am sure the reasons for each one of us are different, but I think we all have a story of a time when others decided we couldn’t do something. Don’t let others tell you what you can and can’t do. Don’t count yourself out, or let others count you out, because you don’t think you look the part. If God chose you, it is because you are the best person for that job. Don’t let others talk you out of it.Sometimes it is not others that count us out, but we count ourselves out. We didn’t think we could do it, and yet someone asked us to do it anyway. Someone saw something in you that you didn’t see in yourself. I doubt David thought he was qualified to be anointed as king. I doubt he felt ready and yet he was anointed anyway. He wasn’t called to be king right then. David was anointed when he was around 15 years old. He was out in the fields tending to his dad’s sheep. He became king over Israel around the age of 30. God saw something in David that even his family didn’t see. The same is true for all of us. God sees something in us that no one else can see.God called David to do extraordinary things that no one would have seen coming. David was asked to bring his brother's lunch on the battlefield one day. When he got there, he saw everyone very scared, and no one was fighting. He saw a giant soldier from the other side, whom everyone was afraid of. David didn’t understand why they were afraid, as they were God’s army. They were God’s chosen people; why would they be scared if they knew God would save them? David offered to fight this g

Come As You Are Series - Saul (Old Testament)1 Samuel 9:18-21 & 1 Samuel 10:1 “Saul approached Samuel in the gateway and asked, “Would you please tell me where the seer’s house is?” “I am the seer,” Samuel replied. “Go up ahead of me to the high place, for today you are to eat with me, and in the morning I will send you on your way and will tell you all that is in your heart. As for the donkeys you lost three days ago, do not worry about them; they have been found. And to whom is all the desire of Israel turned, if not to you and your whole family line?” Saul answered, “But am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why do you say such a thing to me?” Then Samuel took a flask of olive oil and poured it on Saul’s head and kissed him, saying, “Has not the Lord anointed you ruler over his inheritance?”When I was reading over the scriptures for the week, this one caught my eye because Saul says something I can picture each one of us saying. Saul has set out in search of these 3 donkeys that are missing. This interaction picks up when he gets to Samuel’s house. He is looking for Samuel because he is a seer. A seer is a perceiver of hidden truth, according to one site I found online. Samuel says Saul is to eat with him and then will go on his way in the morning. Samuel then drops this crazy idea on Saul that Israel's future lies in his hands. Saul answered, “But am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why do you say such a thing to me?” This is where I think we can all relate. Saul has just been told, “And to whom is all the desire of Israel turned, if not to you and your whole family line?” Basically, the future of Israel lies in Saul’s hands, and he instantly questions his worthiness. Have you ever done this? Have you ever wanted to go for a promotion at work and yet worried you weren’t good enough for it? Have you ever had someone tell you that you would be perfect for some position, whether paid or volunteer, and you wonder what they see in you that made them think that? I know I have. I went to a retreat once, and they were looking for people to be on the executive board for the European region. It was my first retreat with the group. I had been a part of the local groups for a few years. The women I had met at the retreat were saying that if no one else wanted the positions, maybe we should help out. I instantly wondered if I could do it. Didn’t you have to be pretty holy to be on the executive board of a large Catholic organization? What if they knew how flawed I am? What if they realized I don’t know nearly as much as anyone else does about our faith? What if’s kept running through my head. When we were talking about it at dinner, we were discussing what experience we had either in a job setting or in a volunteer setting. I mentioned I had several years of experience volunteering on the executive boards of several spouses' groups. I had pretty much done all the various roles. I will never forget one of the women said, I could have guessed that. I wondered what about me made her think that. To me, I just saw myself as a mom of three boys. Someone who helps out wherever needed. I didn’t think I did anything too important. I mean, I know mothering is important. It's just that sometimes in the grand scheme of things, when mothering is your full-time job, it can start to feel like you aren’t important. I am not sure if that makes sense to everyone, but I know some of you have probably felt that way before. It was nice to have someone else affirm that she knew I could do it. I had only spent two days or so with this woman, and she could see things in me that I couldn’t see. Why is it that others can see things in us that we can’t see? Why do others see the best in us, and we not only can’t see it, but we often struggle to believe it when they call it out in us? Saul was struggling to believe he was worthy of this amazing thing Samuel called out in him. He answered, “But am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why do you say such a thing to me?” All Saul could see was where he came from. He saw his family status, he saw his place in the clan, he saw all he lacked. He didn’t come from the best family, he didn’t have the status, and he didn’t see what Samuel saw in him. However, Samuel was a seer; he could see the hidden truths. Samuel was able to see what God had in store for Saul. He was able to look to the future and see all Saul was capable of doing. I know Saul didn’t have the benefit of the Bible. I am sure some of the stories of God had been passed down through the generations, but he didn’t have the benefit of the complete Old and New Testaments. If he did, he would have been able to realize that God rarely, if ever, uses those with perfect family

Come As You Are Series - MatthewMatthew 9:9 “As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man called Matthew sitting in the tax collector’s office; and He said to him, “Follow Me!” And he got up and followed Him.”Before watching the chosen series, I didn't understand why it was so unusual for Jesus to choose Matthew. I knew the Jewish people did not like tax collectors, but I didn't realize just how much the Jewish people hated them. I also didn't realize how hard it was for a Jewish person to take that job. I didn't know that their entire family would disown them, and all the Jewish people would dislike them.When you watch The Chosen, a series about the life of Jesus, you can see how hard it was for Matthew and how hard it was for his family. In this series, Matthew didn’t really seem to understand why his family was so upset. To him, it was a job and one he was very well suited for. He was very good with numbers and someone needed to collect the taxes. It paid very well and he was able to afford nice things. He wanted to share those things with his family and to help his family out.However, his family wanted nothing to do with that money and nothing to do with him. There were several reasons why the Jewish people hated the tax collectors. Here are five of them.1. They Worked for the Romans. Israel was under Roman occupation, which many Jews saw as a constant reminder that they were not free. Tax collectors were Jewish people who collaborated with the Roman government to collect taxes from their own people. Many Jews saw this as betrayal — essentially siding with the oppressor.2. They Collected More Than Required. Tax collectors often used a system called tax farming: they paid Rome a set amount upfront for the right to collect taxes, and then charged people more than what Rome required in order to profit. This meant they were often greedy and corrupt, getting rich at the expense of their fellow Jews.3. They Were Considered Ritually Unclean. Because they worked closely with Gentiles (Romans) and handled money with images of Caesar on it (which some Jews considered idolatrous), they were considered ceremonially unclean and unable to fully participate in religious life. They were lumped in with “sinners” in society — seen as spiritually dirty and morally compromised.4. They Contributed to Oppression. Paying Roman taxes meant funding Rome’s army and empire — which included pagan temples and the oppression of Jewish people. Tax collectors were seen as helping the enemy, adding to the suffering of their own nation.5. They Represented Injustice. Many people were already living in poverty, and tax burdens could be crushing. Tax collectors were the face of that injustice, the ones knocking on doors, demanding payment, and sometimes taking people’s property.As you can see, this opinion of tax collectors went a lot deeper than just the fact that they were upset they had to pay taxes to a ruler they didn’t believe in, and they didn’t really have that money. There were a lot of reasons why the tax collectors were mistrusted, disliked, and in many cases, hated.This is why it is so shocking that Jesus chose Matthew to be one of His 12 chosen apostles. In the show, you can see that the other apostles don’t understand Jesus’s choice and don’t really want to spend time with Matthew. However, they all come around in the end. They all learn to trust that Jesus has a plan, and they get to know Matthew, not for what he does, but for who he is.The same is true for you. You might have a job that people don’t understand, or you might be doing things that go against God and all He wants for us, and yet God decides He is going to choose you to follow Him. Other people might not understand this. They might think you are the last person who should be doing this, and they may tell you that. It’s ok. It doesn’t matter what others think. What matters is that God has told you. God is calling each one of us. He is calling us to follow Him, and He is calling us to something greater as well. He is not calling us each to the same thing, but I promise God has placed a calling on your life, and He is just waiting for you to come to Him and ask Him what this calling is.It may be something He is putting on your heart to do immediately, and it may be something that He is calling you to in the future. Either way, ask Him to tell you all about it. Ask Him to prepare you for it. Ask Him to equip you for it. This series is called Come As You Are because that is precisely what God wants from us. Just say yes, right where we are. He doesn’t want us to change first. He wants us to come to Him just as we are, and then He will change us in the most beautiful way!God didn’t tell Matthew to find a new job, repent of all his sins, and then come and follow Him. He saw him at work and said Follow Me! and Matthew did. Imagine the courage and trust it must have taken Matthew to walk away from everything he knew to follow Jesus. Imagine how hard it must have been to not

Today's Witness I am reading from the book, Chicken Soup for the Soul, "A book of Miracles: 101 True Stories of Healing, Faith, Divine Intervention, and Answered Prayers." My mother-in-law bought me the book for my birthday this year, and I thought it might be good to share a story with you here and there for Witness Wednesday. We have all seen God working in our lives. However, we might not all be aware it is God working in our lives. This is why it is so important we start talking about it more. The more we share our experiences, the more people understand how God works and how much He truly loves us. If you would be willing to share any experience of how God has worked or is working in your life, please email me at [email protected] or click here. It won’t take up much of your time, and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today. Prayerfully consider sharing. Everyone has a story, and the world needs to hear them. Music: "Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com CLICK HERE TO DONATE CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails CLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Come As You Are Series - MosesExodus 4:10-13 “Then Moses said to the Lord, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” But the Lord said to him, “Who has made the human mouth? Or who makes anyone unable to speak or deaf, or able to see or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now then go, and I Myself will be with your mouth, and instruct you in what you are to say.” But he said, “Please, Lord, now send the message by whomever You will.”This chapter starts with Moses questioning God. God had just told Moses he wanted him to go to Egypt and talk to God’s people. He said he wanted Moses to speak to the most powerful person at the time, the pharaoh of Egypt, and tell him he needed to let the Israelites go. He needed to release his entire workforce, as the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. Also, Moses has been on the run for 40 years after he killed a man. Moses was concerned no one would believe him if he did as God asked Him to do. In Exodus 4:1-9, God tells Moses exactly what to do if they don’t believe that God spoke to him. God said he would turn Moses's staff into a snake when he threw it on the ground, and then, when he picked it back up again by the tail, it would become a staff again. This way, the Israelite people will know that God sent him. Furthermore, if that didn’t work, the Lord told Moses two other signs he would do so that they would believe that the Lord sent him.In verses 10 & 11, it says, “But Moses said to the Lord, 'O my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” Then the Lord said to him, “Who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” The Lord is telling Moses, I know you, I made you. I know what you can and can’t do. However, I am the Lord, and I can do all things. If God can make the deaf hear or the blind see, then don’t you think He could give you whatever you need to do whatever He is calling you to do?Just before this verse, God was telling Moses that He wanted Moses to go to Egypt and free the Jewish people. Moses, like many of us, had lots of reasons why he was not qualified to do the job God asked him to do. What if they didn’t listen to him? What if they didn’t believe God had sent him? God gave Moses all sorts of answers to these questions. Every excuse Moses gave him, God responded with an answer.It makes me think of my kids when I ask them to do something, and they have a million excuses for why they can’t. It doesn’t matter if you shoot down 1 million excuses; they will always have just one more. It is so frustrating, and I can imagine it would be even more frustrating for the Lord. I mean, He is God. He knows everything. If He says you can do something, you can do it.Moses started right in with the what-ifs. What if they don’t believe me is the only one he mentioned, but I wonder if it was the only one? I wonder if this one “what if” spiraled into a bunch of “what ifs?” Has that ever happened to you before? You start wondering what if this happens, and what if that happens, and before you know it, you’ve imagined 50 different scenarios, and most of them are bad. Did you ever notice your mind doesn’t usually go through all the positive what-ifs? When is the last time your brain asked What if I win the lottery? What if everything works out perfectly? What if I do get that job with the pay raise? What if I do meet the man of my dreams? If your brain has done the what-ifs with a positive spin, then you are lucky; that is not how it usually goes.God was going to use what Moses already had, the staff, to convince the people that Moses was telling the truth. If God sends you to do something, he will give you all you need to do it. We don’t have to question Him. This aligns with one of my favorite sayings, which is that God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called. If God is calling you to do something, you can rest assured knowing He has already given you all you need to fulfill that calling. When we ask “What if,” we are thinking about the future, we are going through all the scenarios of everything that could go wrong with our day. What if it isn’t really God calling me to do this thing? What if other people think I am crazy for doing this thing? What if I am too old or too young to do this thing? What if I try it and I fail? Do you see how one thought can then spiral into a lot of thoughts, each one seemingly more and more serious? I would like to say this type of thought pattern was unusual. It isn’t. If you tend to start to head down the what-if road often, you are not alone. Many of us do this. However, when we do this, we are worrying needlessly, and we are probably missing out on whatever is happening at the moment because we are too wrapped up in our thoughts. We are too wrapped up in what might

Come As You Are Series: Rahab The ProstituteHebrews 11:31 “By faith the prostitute Rahab did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace.”This series is to remind us that God wants us to come as we are. He doesn’t expect us to wait until we have cleaned ourselves up or changed our habits before we go to Him. He wants us to come to Him as we are, and then He can help bring us to where He wants us to be. I love the quote, “God meets us where we are and He loves us too much to let us stay there.” We don’t need to change before we go to God; we need God to help us change.Today, we are talking about Rehab the prostitute. You might wonder why we are talking about a prostitute. If you don’t know Rahab’s story, let me summarize it for you. God told the Israelites that He would give them Jericho as their promised land. Joshua sent two spies to check out that land. The Bible says, “So they went and entered the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and rested there.” (Joshua 2:1) Why would these holy men go to rest at the prostitute’s house? Could it be because she was an outcast, and so there wouldn’t be a bunch of people at her house? Is it because she is used to hiding men in her house? We don’t know exactly, as it doesn’t say why they went there, just that they did go there.I heard Steven Furtick of Elevation church talking about this, and he said something that I thought was really good. He said sometimes God will use what you think is a weakness as part of His plan. Joshua’s men chose to stay with Rehab, maybe for the very reason she would have thought God couldn’t use her. I know if I were a prostitute, I would have counted myself out by being used by God. I would have thought that my sins were too great for God to have used me in any way. However, God used Rehab to hide these two men who went to check out the land for Joshua.These men stayed with Rahab, and then the king found out there were spies in his land, and he told Rahab to turn them over. Luckily, she had already hidden them, again, something her job would have taught her to do, and so she said that they had stopped by, but they left before the gates closed for the night. Rehab knew that God had sent these two guys and that He had planned to give Jericho to His people. She helped them so that they would spare her life when they came in to take the land. These men agreed to spare her and her family as long as they were inside her house with her. They gave her a scarlet cord to put in her window so they could tell all the troops to stay out of her home.Rahab used her talents to hide these men and, therefore, gained safety for her whole family. I bet her parents never saw that coming. I bet they never expected the skills she had learned because of her profession would wind up saving their lives someday. God’s ways are a mystery to us. We don’t understand His plan, and yet, with His plan, He shows us time and again that He is not choosing the perfect people to carry it out. He does not choose who we would have chosen.We talked about Tamar and how she dressed like a harlot to seduce her father-in-law to sleep with her so that she could have a baby. We discussed how, out of all the lineages of Jesus listed in the Gospels, Tamar, even after tricking and sleeping with her father-in-law, is only one of five women mentioned in the lineage of Jesus. Now we have Rehab, who is a prostitute, and she is another one of the five women listed in the lineage of Jesus. It says in Matthew 1:5, “Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab, Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth, and Obed fathered Jesse.”In Jewish culture, when listing someone's lineage, it is customary to include the father's name. However, in the case of Jesus, it is mostly just the father’s listed. However, there are five of the mothers listed. Just five in all those years. Matthew 1:17 says, “ So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the [o]Messiah, fourteen generations.” There are 42 generations from Abraham to the Messiah listed in the Gospel of Matthew, and of those 42 generations, He only mentions 5 of the mothers. Those five women must have been pretty special for God to use them to help bring forth the Messiah.Did they feel special? Did they feel abandoned? With Tamar, we know she lost her husband and was promised that his brother would be given to her when he was of age, but he wasn’t. Her father-in-law betrayed her, and so she took what she felt was hers. I doubt she felt special taking it, though. I suspect she didn’t feel holy enough for the Lord to use her in an incredible way like He did. With Rehab, we don’t know her story. We don’t understand why she became a prostitute. We don’t know any back story that would provide us insight into her career choice. However, I am willing to believe she didn’t feel special. I am sure she was an ou

Come As You Are Series - The Samaritan Woman at the WellJohn 4:39-42 “Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of your words that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”I like this verse because it shows how important it is that we talk about our faith and how much God is doing for us. The opening sentence in this verse says, “Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.” What if she didn’t tell anyone what had happened? What if she was too afraid of what others might think to talk about it? She was already an outcast because of her lifestyle. She had five different husbands over the years, and when she met Jesus, the man she was currently living with was not her husband. The reason she was getting water at the hottest time of day was that she was too ashamed to get water in the morning when the rest of the women got their water. She did not want to be the center of attention. She didn’t want everyone looking at her, and yet she ran to town to tell everyone about Jesus. I wonder if all those people would have been saved if she had been too afraid to tell her story. If she was too afraid to share her excitement over Jesus and what He did for her. The reason I ask is that I sometimes feel afraid to share. Sometimes I get a prompting from the Holy Spirit to say something to someone, and all this fear and doubt go through my mind. I wonder what that person will think of me if I say it. I wonder if I will sound crazy or stupid. I wonder if they will even listen or if they will just walk away. I wonder if they will be mean. It sounds like this woman did not think about it at all. She had a conversation with Jesus and then ran right to town to tell everyone about it. I want her courage, her boldness, her humility. Or maybe her impulsiveness, if she ran off without even thinking about it. Maybe I need more of that when it comes to Jesus. Maybe I just need to act first and think later when it comes to following the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Have you ever wondered if something you say or do could have this effect on people? It can. It might have already. A lot of times, it is for us to plant the seeds but not to see the harvest. We have no idea how our words and actions can affect the course of someone’s life. Sometimes we say something, and the person we say it to doesn’t really think much of it, but then down the road, they see the significance of it. Think back to all the people who have been influential in your life. Did you know at the time they were going to be so influential? Did you know that the advice they gave you was going to shape the kind of person you would become? Are those people still alive? Could you tell them now how influential they were? They may not know.We don’t usually see the good in us as much as others do. It is an interesting experiment to ask those who know you well to tell you what they see in you, what they feel your strengths are, and what your weaknesses are. I was reading a book titled “The Miracle Morning” and the author Hal Elrod suggested sending an email to those closest to you, this can include family, friends, and coworkers. He suggests you email them and ask them to tell you the top 2-3 areas of weakness you may have, and then also some areas of strength. He said it is a great way to see if you are living life intentionally and if you are giving off the vibe you want to give off. At the end of the book, he gave a sample email to send out. I think if you asked others how they see you, you would be surprised. They will see things in you to admire and look up to, and you may not see them.The verse ends by saying that although the people in the town started to believe in Jesus because of her words, now they believe because they heard Jesus for themselves. I love this part too because I feel it takes the pressure off of me. I just have to tell my story, I just have to talk about what Jesus has done for me, and hopefully that will be enough to lead people to find Jesus. It is not my responsibility to make them Christian, to save their soul, to teach them everything they need to know about Jesus. Jesus will do that. It is just my job to tell them about my encounter. If I tell people how God is working in my life, that will be enough to get them to seek God so they can find out more. I truly believe our stories are powerful enough to bring others to Christ, and this verse is a great witness to that. Sometimes we think our story is not big enough, interesting enough, or important enough to tell others. We feel we have lived a boring, normal life, and so others won’t want to hear about it. This is a lie from the enemy. He

Come As You Are Series - PeterMatthew 16:18-19 “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”I want you to imagine for a moment that you are Peter. Can you even imagine what it would feel like for Jesus to tell you that you were going to be the rock on which He would build his church? Can you imagine Jesus saying He was going to give you the keys to heaven? I can’t even imagine it. I can imagine there were a lot of different emotions swirling around in Peter’s brain. He was probably excited, honored, proud, scared, confused, and honestly, not sure what to think. You may be having similar feelings about the calling that God has placed on your life. This entire devotional series addresses these concerns.Sometimes we think that if we ask questions or if we doubt that we are the right person for the job, then it means we have lost faith or that we don’t deserve the job. There were plenty of people in the Bible who questioned if they were the right person for the job. There were plenty of people in the Bible who doubted they had what it took. They did not feel worthy. They did not feel like they knew what they were doing. I am sure Peter had no idea how to run a church on the day that Jesus called him to be the head of the church. I am sure you won’t feel prepared to do the thing He is calling you to do the first time you hear it, either.I was talking with a friend yesterday who has started a non-profit for women in recovery. She felt the calling and decided to answer the call. That doesn’t mean she instantly knew what she was doing. She needed to research how to write grants. She needed to run a capital fundraising campaign. She needed to learn how to do a whole bunch of things she didn’t already know how to do. The latest thing she encountered was that everyone was telling her that she should open a sober living house. She instantly said no, that is not something I would be good at. However, she also took it to prayer, and after resisting for some time, she finally realized that God was calling her to that. Even though she still doesn’t feel like she is the right person, she knows if God is calling her, then He is equipping her with all she needs.This series is also about showing us that God doesn’t use the perfect to fulfill his plan; He uses regular, ordinary, flawed people to do some of His most significant works. Peter was a fisherman. The first time we meet Peter in the Bible, he had been fishing all night, and they hadn’t caught anything. Peter and the others were washing their nets, and Jesus told them to go back out and cast their nets. Peter explained they had been fishing all night and didn’t catch anything, but agreed to do as the preacher said. They let the nets down and caught more fish than they could handle. Then Jesus called them to come and follow Him, and they would become fishers of men.What just occurred to me, which I have never thought of before, is that the night was probably their biggest catch ever. They probably have never caught so many fish at one time before. That was their most successful catch, and yet Jesus was calling them away from that lifestyle. The same might be true for you. You don’t understand why God is calling you away from what you are doing now because you are doing it really well. You are finally where you wanted to be. You are finally successful at what you are doing. Why would God want you to leave when things are going so well?I don’t know if Peter, Andrew, John, and James struggled with this or not. It doesn’t seem like it. It says Jesus called, and they left their nets and followed Him. It doesn’t tell us what they were thinking in their heads. What we do know is that they followed Jesus, and the things they experienced were exponentially better than what they experienced while they were fishing. God used them in powerful ways. The same is true for you. If you answer the call and follow Jesus, you will experience amazing things, and God will use you in powerful ways.Another way we are all similar to Peter is that He did not always do the right thing. He was not always perfect. There are several I can think of. We might think that because Peter was chosen to lead the church, He never doubted in Jesus and never wavered in His faith. However, when Peter asked Jesus to call him out of the boat so he could walk on water, Jesus did. Peter was brave and got out of the boat and walked on the water. However, then he looked away from Jesus, got scared about the wind and the waves, and started to sink. Even if you waiver sometimes, even if you struggle to believe God can do extraordinary things at times, you can still be used powerfully by the Lord. God just needs a mustard seed of faith.We might also think that if we are weak and f

Today's Witness I am reading from the book, Chicken Soup for the Soul, "A book of Miracles: 101 True Stories of Healing, Faith, Divine Intervention, and Answered Prayers." My mother-in-law bought me the book for my birthday this year, and I thought it might be good to share a story with you here and there for Witness Wednesday. We have all seen God working in our lives. However, we might not all be aware it is God working in our lives. This is why it is so important we start talking about it more. The more we share our experiences, the more people understand how God works and how much He truly loves us. If you would be willing to share any experience of how God has worked or is working in your life, please email me at [email protected] or click here. It won’t take up much of your time, and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today. Prayerfully consider sharing. Everyone has a story, and the world needs to hear them. Music: "Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com CLICK HERE TO DONATE CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails CLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Come As You Are Series: TamarGenesis 38:26 “Then Judah acknowledged them and said, “She is more righteous than I, inasmuch as I did not give her to my son Shellac.” And he did not lie with her again.”The purpose of this series is to show you that God doesn’t pick the perfect people to fulfill his plan. This is what we tell ourselves, or what the enemy tells us. We tell ourselves that God can’t use us because we are not good people, and we have done bad things. If, by some miracle, we can believe that God wants to use us, then the enemy comes in and starts whispering lies in our ears. He tells us that we aren’t enough and that God would never pick us. He reminds us about every bad thing we have ever done and tries to tell us that because of these things, God can’t use us.I have been hearing this so much more from people lately, and that is what prompted this series. You may get tired of me saying the same thing over and over again. However, it is an important enough message that it is okay if I convey the same message 31 different ways. We need repetition. We need to hear things over and over again. Research suggests that we need to listen to things between 5 and 7 times before we remember them correctly. I think when we are trying to correct negative thinking, the number is much higher.Over and over again in the Bible, God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things. He uses people who have sinned to show us that our sins don’t count us out. He uses people who think they are better than others to show us that even if we feel that way, God can still use us. He uses people with unfavorable professions to show us that even if that is us, we can still be of use. God made you, He created you, He knows you. He can use you no matter what your circumstances are.Today, we will talk about Tamar. You can find her complete story in Genesis 38. I will summarize it for you. Tamar was married to one of Judah’s three sons. His oldest son is named Er. But Er was wicked, in the sight of the Lord, so the Lord killed him. It was the custom when they lived that if your husband died before you got pregnant, it was the job of his brother to sleep with you and give you an offspring. So, Judah told his next son, Onan, to sleep with Tamar and give her a child. Onan slept with Tamar, but he withdrew before getting her pregnant, as it would not be considered his child. God did not like this, and he slew Onan too.Judah’s younger son was too young to produce a child, so Judah told Tamar to go live as a widow in her father’s house, and as soon as his younger son was old enough, he would give her to his youngest son. Over time, Judah’s wife died, and Tamar saw that the younger brother had grown up, and Judah did not keep his promise. Tamar really wanted to have a child, so she dressed up like a harlot and slept with her father-in-law. He did not recognize her as she was covered. She asked him before they slept to gather to give her something so that he could go into her.Judah said he would send a goat. Tamar asked for his signet ring, cord, and staff as a pledge until he sent the goat. Judah agreed and went into her. Then, when he got back home, he sent his friend back with a goat for this harlot, but he could not find her, as Tamar was back to living as a widow in her father’s house. Judah felt foolish, so he let it go. Then he heard, three months later, that Tamar had played the harlot and was with child as a result of this harlotry. Judah said to bring her out to be burned. However, when she came out, she brought the ring, cord, and staff and said, “By the man to whom these belong, I am with child.” This is where today’s verse picks up. “Then Judah acknowledged them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shellac.” And he did not lie with her again.”When Tamar gave birth, she had twins, one named Perez and one called Zerah. The next time we hear about Tamar is in Ruth 4:12. Her name is mentioned in the blessing at Boaz and Ruth’s wedding: “ and, through the children that the Lord will give you by this young woman, may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.” By mentioning Tamar, the people are saying: Even out of broken, unexpected circumstances, God can bring blessing and a great family line. Perez Became a Symbol of Strength and Growth. Perez’s name means “breaking out. He became the ancestor of a large, influential tribe in Israel. The blessing is basically saying: May your descendants “break out” in number, influence, and strength like Perez’s did.Tamar was not an extraordinary person. She did not do anything spectacular. She was married and wanted to be a mom. However, God knew her husband was wicked and killed him. Then her brother-in-law was being selfish, and God killed him. However, God did not abandon her, and He did not forget her desire to have a baby. I am not condoning how she had that baby, and I have no idea if there was another way for her to have a baby

Come As You Are Series: Paul (God Wants You!)1 Timothy 1:12-16 “I am grateful to him who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he considered me trustworthy in appointing me to the ministry. I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and an arrogant man, but I have been mercifully treated because I acted out of ignorance in my unbelief. Indeed, the grace of our Lord has been abundant, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of these, I am the foremost. But for that reason I was mercifully treated, so that in me, as the foremost, Christ Jesus might display all his patience as an example for those who would come to believe in him for everlasting life.”Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. This is something that the Pharisees and Sadducees could not understand. Actually, many people couldn’t understand this. Jesus was the savior; the Jewish people thought He was coming to save them from the Roman Army. They did not know that He was coming to save them from something much more important. He was coming so that we would have eternal salvation. He came to walk among us so He could save us from ourselves. God had a perfect plan, and Adam and Eve, being human and not perfect, messed up that plan. God sent His son to us so that He could set things right again. The beginning of this verse talks about “him who strengthened me.” This sounds an awful lot like Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” It is true that we get our strength through Jesus Christ. Paul is thankful in this verse because Jesus considered him trustworthy in appointing him to the ministry. He talks about how he was once a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an arrogant man. If you were designing this world, if you got to choose who was going to lead God’s people, is this the type of man you would choose? Does Paul sound like the ideal candidate? He was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an arrogant man. He is not who I would pick. And yet He is exactly who God chose. Why do you think He does this? Why do you think God chooses to use less-than-perfect people for his ministry? I believe He does it because of exactly what He says to us in Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” God knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows that if he only uses "perfect people,” we won’t listen to them. It is tough to connect with someone that you can’t relate to. Also, we tend to believe what we see more than what we hear. It is one thing to have someone who has never struggled with an addiction come and tell you that Jesus can heal your addictions. It is quite another to see someone that you know had an addiction problem and is now cured of it. Which would you rather, someone to tell you that Jesus can forgive your sins, or to see Jesus sitting with those who have sinned? As people, we don’t like listening as much as we enjoy seeing. Jesus took a man who was not a very good person, someone who didn’t even believe that Jesus was who He said He was, and used him to do extraordinary things. This is because of God’s mercy. I bet that every time Paul told the story of his conversion, he won over more people than the leaders in the church preaching about God’s mercy without ever having experienced it. It even says in the last sentence of this verse why Jesus chose Paul. He said, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of these, I am the foremost. But for that reason I was mercifully treated, so that in me, as the foremost, Christ Jesus might display all his patience as an example for those who would come to believe in him for everlasting life.” Paul was chosen, not despite his past sins, but because of them. He was selected to be an example of Jesus’ patience to all those who would come to believe. Don’t you find it easier to believe that God will forgive your sins when you know that He forgave Paul’s sins? If the Lord can use Paul, who was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an arrogant man, don’t you think He can use you? Sometimes we count ourselves out, and we don’t listen when God calls us because we don’t believe we are good enough to serve the Lord. He is almighty and powerful, and we are tiny and useless. He is perfect, and we are full of sin. How could He possibly use us when there are others out there that are so much better than we are at everything? God doesn’t want better, God wants you. If you are willing, God wants to use you. He is calling every single one of us to serve Him. Are we worthy of serving Him? Nope, and yet He still calls us to serve Him. He does not call us despite our past sins; He calls us because of our past sins. He calls us because His ways are higher than our ways. He knows that there

Come As You Are Series: Jacob-Don’t Count Yourself OutGenesis 28:10-15 "Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”The theme of this episode is don’t count yourself out. Do you ever do this? Do you ever hear about someone doing something and count yourself out because you don’t think you are strong enough, or you don’t believe you are good enough, or you are not sufficient in some other way? Do you ever hear about someone receiving a blessing and count yourself out of receiving a blessing because you are not good enough or you are not holy enough? I think we all count ourselves sometimes. We hear about people receiving blessings and good things from God, and we tell ourselves they are holier than we are. They are better Christians than we are. They are closer to God, so of course He is blessing them. We then proceed to think of all the ways in which we are falling short. We think of all the things we are doing wrong and how God couldn’t possibly bless us. In my Encounter class, we talked about the verse above, and when I heard her talking about it, I knew some of you needed to listen to it as badly as I did. In the verse above, God is bestowing upon Jacob an amazing blessing. He is promising to give him and his descendants the land on which Jacob lay. God is also promising Jacob that his descendants will be like the dust of the earth and will be spread out to the east, west, north, and south. Then he says all people on earth will be blessed through Jacob and his offspring. God promises to be with Jacob, to watch over him, and to bring him back to that land. I am not sure if you're familiar with the story of Jacob. If you aren’t, you probably assume Jacob is a great guy. It is easy to think he is a very holy man who was doing everything right. However, this is not the case.In Genesis 27, the chapter right before this, Isaac, Jacob’s dad, asked Esau, Jacob’s brother, to prepare him some food, and then he would give him the blessing he deserved because he was the oldest. However, Jacob’s mom persuades Jacob to get the blessing instead. Jacob dressed up like his brother; they even put goat skin on his hands so he would be hairy like his brother’s hands. Then he brought food to his father and pretended to be his brother. His father doubted, but Jacob convinced him and stole his brother's blessing. When Esau came home, he was really angry. He begged his father for a blessing, but there wasn’t really one to be had. He had already given it to Jacob. Esau was so angry that he decided he would kill Jacob once his father passed away. Their mother heard about Esau’s plan and told Jacob to run away. She told him to go and stay with her brother until Esau’s anger calmed down. It was on his way to her brother’s house that Jacob had this dream. Jacob was not doing everything right. He was not the ideal person we would think God would choose to bless, and yet God blessed him tremendously. Do you know what that means? That means He can bless you tremendously, too. It means you don’t have to count yourself out from whatever it is you think you want to do or whatever it is God wants to do for you.If we look back through scripture, we will see plenty of examples of where God used people we would have never chosen to do the things he wanted to get done. God chose Tamar, a woman whose husband died. Because her father-in-law refused to give his other younger son to her so she could conceive a child, as was the custom back then, she pretended to be a harlot and tricked her father-in-law into sleeping with her so she could conceive a son. Tamar was definitely not doing everything right, and yet God used Tamar as part of the lineage that brought about David, the king, and therefore our savior Jesus as well. There is also Ruth, who was not even a Christian; she was a Moabite woman, a foreigner. Even though she was not a Christian, she was the great-grandmother of David. I know it feels like we are getting it all wrong sometimes. I know it feels like we can’t possibly be doing enough to earn God’s blessings. I know it feels like we are never good enough. I know. And yet, God isn’t a

Come As You Are: IntroActs 9:15 “But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel.”This verse comes just after Saul has seen a vision of Jesus, and Jesus asked him why He was persecuting Him. Then Saul loses his sight and is told to go into the city and wait to be told what to do. Then the Lord asked one of his disciples to go to Saul. There is a conversation between this disciple and the Lord in Acts 9:10-16: “Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.” The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”There are several themes that I see coming across in these verses. First, I always find it interesting when the disciples of God, those who get to have a conversation with Him, argue with Him or question Him. I always think I would respond differently, and yet, I do get to have conversations with God, and I do still question Him. We are all human, and questioning and doubting are natural human behaviors. In these verses, Ananias is given a task to do. God wants him to go and restore Saul’s sight. I wonder if Ananias ever healed anyone before? Would this be his first time? Also, Ananias has heard rumors about this person, whom he is supposed to go and heal. Saul’s reputation preceded him. He was not a nice person. He was in that town to collect any believers of Jesus and bring them to jail, essentially. He approved the stoning to death of Stephen, one of Jesus’ followers. I can totally understand why Ananias would question this plan. Why he might even be scared. If he goes to heal this man in Jesus’ name, then Saul will know he is a Christian. What if there are ramifications of that?There are many reasons why we might question the Lord’s plan. I think worrying about our own safety and the possible risk to our lives is a pretty big one. It’s interesting how I can silently judge Ananias for questioning God when he is dealing with someone who has stoned fellow believers, and yet I question God when I am completely safe, and just being asked to step outside of my comfort zone. My life is not in danger, and yet I still question God’s plan. I still hesitate to do what I know He is asking me to do. So, why do I always think it is crazy when others question God’s plan? I am the first to say God has a plan. I am the first to encourage someone to step out in faith and do the scary thing God is asking you to do. I am also the first one to hesitate when God asks me to do some things. I am the first one to question and to wonder if I am really the best person to do that. I question if He really knows what He is doing, asking me to do that. In this verse, Ananias is actually not questioning his own ability; he is questioning Saul’s worthiness of being healed. This is another thing that we can be quick to judge. We can all question God’s decisions on who He heals, saves, and works through. Maybe you know someone really great who died from cancer, or was killed in a car accident when they were a teenager, and you also know some pretty terrible people who beat cancer and seem to have everything going for them. In our eyes, these things can seem very unfair, and we don’t understand them. They make no sense to us. I don’t understand them either, so I will not be giving you any answers to those questions today. However, I do know that God has a plan, and He can use anyone for that plan. I do know when it comes to the question of worthiness, none of us is worthy on our own merit. We can’t judge others because we don’t know their heart; only God can judge, as He knows what is in our hearts. You can have someone who seems as lovely as can be in public and yet is awful in their private life. You can have someone who is not very nice to people, and yet that is because they were wounded and they don’t know any other way.I saw the movie and read the book called The Shack. If you have not read the book or seen the movie, you should check it out; it is so good. Of course, the book is better, but the movie does a pretty good job explaining why we shouldn’t judge others. It discusses how we often don’t see the whole picture. We can judge the man who is abusing his wife and child, but would we judge that child? Wh

Today’s witnesses are from an email my friend in the Prayer Group received. She gets a daily email from www.dailyrosarymeditations.com Every day, it gives five snippets, each to encourage reflection on praying one mystery of the rosary. She found this day’s snippets particularly powerful and wanted to share it. They are all about how Mary will conquer, and they are written by Mike Scherschligt.One - The Bishop I have become friends with Bishop Oliver Doeme Dashe, the Bishop of Maiduguri in North East Nigeria. In 2009 the Muslim terrorist group Boko Haram, which means “Western Education is Evil” began to attack Christians in his diocese. In 2014 Boko Haram completely overran his diocese. The Nigerian military dropped their weapons and fled like children. Thousands of Catholics were killed, two hundred Church structures were burned, and one hundred thousand Catholics fled for their lives to neighboring countries. Fr. William, a priest from the diocese, told me as he drove from parish to parish to celebrate Mass, that the roads were littered with dead bodies. At any moment, he could be surrounded by Boko Haram, dragged from his car, and shot. In October of 2014 Bishop Oliver went before Our Lord Jesus in Eucharistic Adoration, traumatized and trembling, and began to pray the Rosary. Suddenly, Jesus appeared to the Bishop in a vision, holding a very long sword in his hands. When he saw Jesus, the Bishop said, “Lord, what is this?” He didn’t answer, but he stretched out his arms and put the sword into the hands of Bishop Oliver. When he received the sword, it turned into a Rosary. Then Jesus spoke these words three times: “Boko Haram is gone! Boko Haram is gone! Boko Haram is gone!” And the vision ended. The message was clear, with the Rosary we shall conquer!At that time Boko Haram had complete control of the diocese. If anyone was seen or caught in public as a Catholic, Boko Haram would instantly kill them. Yet, despite the danger, Bishop Oliver began to go village to village and organize public Rosary processions. From the moment the people began public Rosary processions, Boko Haram has been driven out of his diocese. The Churches are being rebuilt, all of his parishioners have come back, and 97% of his diocese go to Mass every Sunday. Most importantly, the Church in his diocese is growing from strength to strength. At one parish alone, Bishop Oliver brought five hundred new adults into the Church. Mary came down through the Rosary and sent Boko Haram packing!Two - Austria As we sat together and Bishop Oliver told me of these miraculous events, he said to me, “Michael, this is not the first time Our Mother has sent evil forces packing by the power of Rosary processions. Do you remember what took place in Austria after World War Two? Did you know that much of Austria was under the Iron Curtain after World War Two?” I did know, but I loved hearing it again from Bishop Oliver, so I didn’t let on. After World War Two, Austria was divided up by the Allies. The Eastern half of the country and Vienna came under the control of the Soviets. Until 1991, the Soviets never lost a nation, but something different happened here. Fr. Petrus Pavlicek was inspired by the words of Our Lady at Fatima. She asked us to pray the Rosary every day because only she could help us.From 1947 to 1955, Fr. Pavlicek began gathering people in villages, towns, and cities across Soviet controlled Austria on the 13th of each month to pray the Rosary together in public. He called it the Rosary Crusade. Many people gathered at first, but they could not sustain their spiritual practices, so the Rosary Crusade ebbed and flowed. But Fr. Petrus persevered in his confidence in Our Lady. By 1955, eight years later, half a million Austrians had pledged to pray the Rosary, begging for the conversion of sinners, peace in the world and freedom in Austria. The Cold War intensified as the Soviets crushed the Hungarians. However, on March 24th, 1955, Eve of the Annunciation, to the world’s surprise, the Soviets announced they would withdraw their troops from Austria in just three months. On May 15th, 1955, the Soviets signed a treaty guaranteeing the independence of Austria. In October of 1955, the month of the Rosary, the last Russian soldier left Austrian soil.Mary came down through the Rosary and sent the enemy packing!Three - BrazilIn 1964, the president of Brazil, João Goulart, wanted to make Brazil a Communist country. The archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, Cardinal de Barros Camara, in an address on national radio, called the people to resist publicly by praying the Rosary. President Goulart was so enraged that he insulted the people of Brazil in a public speech. He ridiculed the rosary, saying that it was his Marxist ideas that would reform and save Brazil, not the rosaries of simple women. That was a big mistake!Twenty thousand women hit the streets with their rosaries. They marched right into the midst of the Communist rally and prayed the rosary so lou