Walk Boldly With Jesus

Mutual AffectionRomans 12:9-10 “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.”This was not the verse I thought I would be using today. I was planning on using the next two verses in this chapter. However, when I clicked on the whole chapter and read these two verses, the last part jumped out at me. Has that ever happened to you? When you are reading a verse, it just jumps off the page or sticks in your head. Honestly, it doesn’t happen that often to me. This is how I knew the Lord was trying to talk to me about this specific verse today.What stood out to me was where it says, “Love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.” I think this part jumped out at me because I have been really thinking a lot about how Tony and I interact, especially when other people are around. I have been noticing lately that he has changed. It used to be that the two of us were pretty sarcastic towards each other and would kinda give each other a hard time. We argued all the time. Sometimes, I think we argued just to argue because it was rarely over something important.I used to think that those who spent time with us must have wondered how long we would stay together. We love each other; I guess we just liked to argue, too. Anyway, lately, in the last several years, I have noticed that we don’t argue as much over silly things. I have also noticed that Tony has changed the way he talks about me to others as well. For the most part, when he talks about me to others, he is very kind and loving. I noticed when I went out with Tony and the people from his work a month or so ago I was still very sarcastic, and it did not come out very lovingly. The reason I am telling you all of this is because I doubt I am the only person who could speak nicer to my spouse or loved one. Maybe for you, it is not your spouse. Maybe you need to work on how you speak to your parents, your siblings, your co-workers, your children, or whoever it is in your life that you spend a lot of time with. The Lord has been putting this on my heart a lot lately, so I wanted to share it with you as well if you are struggling with this.Let’s look at this verse and see what the Lord is telling us. It begins, “Let love be genuine.” This is harder than it may seem. In order to let love be genuine, we have to be our true selves. This means not hiding behind any facade that we may have put up to protect ourselves. This means being the real you with those you love, including God. Why do we try to hide things from the Lord? He already knows everything about us and loves us anyway. People can’t genuinely love us if they don’t truly know us. Genuine love also means that we are honest and truthful.The verse goes on to say, “Hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good.” This can be really hard. The world teaches us to love sin. It teaches us that what we want is good and that we can have all that we want, even if it is not according to what God wants. The Bible tells us differently. the Lord says to “hate what is evil.” Do we do this? Do we hate sin? Do we hate the things that the Lord says are wrong, or do we just accept them as good because the world tells us that they are good?The verse says to hold fast to what is good. What is good? God is good. The things He tells us are good. Loving the Lord our God with our whole heart, mind, and soul is good. Loving our neighbor as ourselves is good. There is a lot of good in the world; we just need to look for it. We need not be seduced by the evil in the world, and we need to look past it to see all of the good.Next it says, “ love one another with mutual affection.”Are we doing this? I know I talked about this one a bit earlier. I also want to say that this is not just talking about your spouse. God wants us to love everyone with mutual affection. The second greatest commandment is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Are we doing that? Are we loving our neighbor as we love ourselves?I think this commandment gets overlooked a lot. We love God, but we struggle to love Him with our whole hearts, minds, and souls. We also have to love our neighbor, but there are a lot of not nice people out there. How can God expect us to love them? Surely God doesn’t mean I have to love my co-worker who is always throwing me under the bus? Surely, God doesn’t mean I have to love my neighbor who is always stealing my paper and talking about me behind my back. Guess what? It says in Matthew 5:44, “ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” So, yes, God wants us to love everyone, even those we would consider our enemies. Can we love those we meet in life with mutual affection? Can we at least work on it? I am sure we all know a few people in our lives that we struggle to love. God is not asking for perfection. He is asking for progress. Can we at least try to be nicer to them even if we aren’t

The Fruits of the SpiritColossians 1:9-10 “For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.”I was at a conference this weekend on Saturday, and the speaker, Walter Matthews, talked about this verse. He started with verse 10, “So that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.” I like this verse as it talks about bearing fruit in every good work as you grow in the knowledge of God. However, I thought verse 9 was important as it says that they were praying they would all be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. I think this is the key to the verse 10. If we don’t have wisdom and knowledge, then I believe we will struggle to bear fruit with our work. Do you know what it means to bear fruit in your life or in your work? I am fairly new to this concept, so in case anyone else listening is like me, I will explain. Bearing fruit is another way to look at the outcome of the things you are doing. Are they good vs. bad? Are you getting good results at work? Do you feel good, do others around you feel good after interacting with you? What about at home? Are you happy with who you are at home? Are others happy with who you are at home? Is your home and your family growing in a positive way? These would all be good fruits.When we want to judge if something is truly from the Holy Spirit, we look for the fruits of the Spirit in our work. There are nine fruits of the Holy Spirit. These are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. My mom actually got me a box set of books that talked about each of these fruits of the Spirit. It was cool to read about them each in more depth. One day when I was talking to my spiritual director, actually the first day with this spiritual director, he said something that helped me realize I could use these fruits as a gauge to see how I was doing in life. I can’t remember what he even said, and yet I remember a lightbulb went off in my head.I am constantly wondering if what I am doing is pleasing the Lord. Am I getting this thing called life, right? Am I hearing what He is saying to me, and am I doing the things He is asking me to do? These are questions we should all ask ourselves from time to time. I tend to ask myself this often. After speaking with my spiritual advisor, I realized I could look at my life and see where the fruits of the Holy Spirit are showing up. For instance, where in my life can I see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? If I am seeing the fruits of the Holy Spirit, then I am doing something right. When I look at my life, I do see the fruits of the Holy Spirit. The extent to which we see them in our lives can be an indication of how well we are doing walking with God if we have a lot of love in our lives, a lot of peace and joy, if we have a lot of patience in our lives, along with kindness and goodness. If we have faithfulness, gentleness & self-control, then we are probably doing pretty good. There are things that can also show us the areas we need to work on improving. For instance, lately, I have been struggling with self-control. I used to be doing pretty well, and now I struggle more with it.The fruits of the Spirit are not something that we can earn with our own efforts. The fruits of the Spirit increase when we live according to the Holy Spirit. The more we listen to the Holy Spirit, the more we do as we feel the Holy Spirit is leading us to do, and the more we will exhibit these fruits. So, what does this look like for us practically, that is the question I am wondering right now. How can we increase in these fruits of the Holy Spirit if it is not through our own efforts? First, we rely on the Holy Spirit more. We stop before we do something and ask the Holy Spirit if that is the path we are supposed to go down. Or we ask if there is a problem going down that path. Second, we remember we have the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of us, and it can give us courage and strength to do things we might not do otherwise. For instance, we might speak up against the injustice that we see a little more if we remember that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of us.Another way to grow in the gifts of the Spirit is to help others. Jesus told us what we have done for others, you have done for me. In Matthew 25, Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Jesus wants us to help the poor, feed the hungry, and clothe the naked. If we want to grow in the gi

Today’s witnesses are from Matthew West’s website called popwe.org. If you don’t know who Matthew West is, he is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller. This website is for the non-profit that he has with his father, a pastor. Matthew and his father encourage people to share their stories. They have various categories of stories. Today, I chose three testimonies from the God Stories Category. Often, we can hear our own story in someone else’s story. When we listen to others tell their story, it helps us see that we are not alone. When we hear how God worked in their situation, it gives us hope that He will work in ours, too! I pray when you hear this testimony, you get the faith and hope to believe that miracles can happen in your situation, also. I pray you know that God is there with you, and if you invite Him into your situation, He can help. I hope you enjoy these testimonies.Sarah-Jane: I’ve been going through many trails the past several months. I faced a breakdown in my marriage due to mental and financial abuse. I was depressed and life in general was getting a hold on me. I started to shut down and isolate from people and life. Best to do things on my own, or so I thought. But it didn’t work out great.I eventually shared my struggles with my close friends and family. They were the ones who cared for me and loved me. I was so ashamed and embarrassed of the situation that I was in.But I am fortunate to have a loving church community that has been on my journey with me. I have handed everything to God. I have forgiven people that have hurt me.I believe that since I’ve opened my heart more to God, He has filled me to overflowing with the Holy Spirit just at the times I needed it. Whether it was through a worship song, a sermon or a Bible verse. He has the spirit pour over me in the past few weeks. One day at church, we were invited to come to the front before the mercy seat, I couldn’t speak, but within seconds, I just lost it and was crying tears of joy and trembling with laughter.God has shown me so much mercy and grace and it is good to know that I’m never alone. I’m forever blessed to have such a loving God who has made me whole, and He has given me peace and comfort in my trials. If God wasn’t in my life, I don’t know where I’d be today. He has opened many closed doors. He provided a nice home and my children visit often. He has helped my anxiety and depression to be manageable. I am a much stronger woman and I’m grateful for God’s love.1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 – “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.”Jenelle: I had the next chemotherapy treatment today. It was number 4. I had a PET-CT scan last week which showed that the metastatic ovarian cancer has reduced in size, and nothing new has grown since the last scan in June. This is the 7th time I have had chemotherapy in 13 years. It has been quite a journey.Because of my experience I can speak with authority to others who are experiencing metastatic cancer and encourage them that God has not forgotten them, and that He always has a purpose for us.Kathie, a fellow traveler, needs prayer. She has metastatic bowel cancer and is questioning not only her doctors, but God. I keep encouraging her to trust God. I have told her that most people don’t consider what will happen when they die. I’ve sent her Bible verses to encourage her. We are the privileged ones because God has given us time.I’ve had 13 years to plan my funeral! This life is just the shadow. We look forward to the real world that will go on for eternity.For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain! For me, Kathie, and everyone who submits their lives to Jesus, cannot lose! It’s definitely a win-win situation! And I for one cannot wait to get to heaven!Jon- My name is Jon, and I want to tell you a story about how the Lord challenged me to trust Him during trials where I frankly thought it would be easier to just end my life. About 15-16 years ago, I blew out a disc in my lumbar spine. At the time, I had never experienced that type of pain, yet I didn’t know it that God was giving me a practice session for what was to come. I was treated and it got better but then it came back with a vengeance, and I was taking pain medication like they were Tic Tacs, just to stay functional.I ended up having surgery and praised the Lord when I woke up, because the pain was gone… Again, the Lord was just giving me a break, before the big game started.Six months later, I was diagnosed with severe Rheumatoid Arthritis. I was in a blue funk for a long time. RA is incurable. They don’t really know what causes it and all the different medications were only to prevent more damage from happening.But God… He used this time to take someone who really had little patience with people and change that. God made me thankful for the blessings that I

God Is In The Practical Things Too!James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”I read this one and I really liked it because I think wisdom is something that we might not think to request from God. I think we all feel pretty comfortable praying to God when we are sick or when a loved one is sick. I don’t know if it is because we know God can heal people or if it is because we know there is nothing we can do and so we hope God can do something. I think we tend to go to God as a last resort. We try to solve things on our own, and then if we can’t, we turn to God. Why do we save him for last?God can do anything. He created this whole Universe; he can surely help us with whatever it is we need help with. Yet, we don’t always think to ask him unless it is something we know we can’t do ourselves, like healing a sickness. It’s interesting because when you have to rely on God for more, you see him more. My husband and my boys didn’t really see a lot of miracles from God when our kids were growing up. Luckily, my husband had a great job, and he is really good with money. We never really struggled with money, and my kids never lacked anything with regard to food, clothing, or a roof over their heads. We always had great medical insurance. We were blessed with being able to live in other countries and travel to see things. I am grateful that we didn’t have to struggle with those things. I am grateful, and yet, at times, I wish we did not have to struggle. I know that probably sounds strange, and I understand why it sounds strange. Why would anyone want to have to struggle? I don’t think I truly wanted to struggle; I did want the faith that comes with having to struggle, though. I wanted my kids to be able to see that God will always provide for us. I wanted them to know that God would always be there to take care of their needs. My parents struggled when I was growing up. I mean, they had 11 kids to take care of, and my dad had a great job, and yet money only goes so far. Imagine paying the mortgage, electric, and heating bills for a house that fits that many children. Imagine the food bill and then the clothing and the shoes. Think about how much it costs for you to have one child play a sport, do dancing or theatre, and then multiply that by 11. My parents sacrificed a lot to have all of us kids. There were months when they had to decide which bill they were going to pay and which one could wait until next month. My mom was constantly on the phone with the bill collectors, telling them she could send $5 a month or whatever it was she had. I know it was hard on them, and I don’t wish that on anyone. And yet, I do wish everyone could have the faith that they have that God would take care of what they need. They knew without a doubt that they could call on Him for big things and small things. They knew He would help with practical things, like food and a car, just as much as he would heal my sister of a mysterious illness. I know, and God knows, that I didn’t really want to experience the pain of not having enough, but I did want the faith that comes with it. I feel the Holy Spirit is pointing out to me that although I did not have to worry about resources like food, shelter, or clothing, I did have to struggle. My boys were pretty difficult at times and I did learn how to trust that God would be there in all the different ways. I had to trust that God would save my child from being hit by a car when he would run down the middle of the street. I had to trust that God would save my children from each other when they were at their worst. I had to learn to trust that God would not let my children take their own lives. I did have plenty of ways to build my trust, and you do, too.Maybe you don’t have such drastic things in your lives, but we are all struggling with something. What causes you the most struggles, and how can it help you trust God more? Has your faith grown because of those struggles? Can you look back at the past few years and see how God was there for you in the struggles? I can look back and see that God placed the perfect people in my life at each and every base where we were stationed. I was never alone. I may have felt alone in my house, but I always had really good friends who would listen to me, build me up, and support me. They would also take the boys when I needed a break, or they would take me away for the weekend, and Tony would keep the boys. God also provided me with a strong Catholic women’s group or the strength to start one if there wasn’t already one. If you are not part of a Christian woman’s group or men’s group, you should find one. I cannot tell you the strength you get from seeing others living their faith. It is incredible. God can use your struggles to help build your faith; you just have to let Him. If you look closely over your struggles, you will see Him there. You will see He has always

Be Not Afraid!Jeremiah 30:10 “‘So do not be afraid, Jacob my servant; do not be dismayed, Israel,’ declares the Lord. ‘I will surely save you out of a distant place, your descendants from the land of their exile. Jacob will again have peace and security, and no one will make him afraid.”This morning, when I read this verse, the words that jumped out at me were, “Do not be afraid.” The Lord is constantly telling us this, and yet it seems we can’t seem to help ourselves. I get it; there is a lot of scary stuff going on in the world right now. There are countries at war, with no end in sight. They just seem to be escalating. In America, we have an election coming up. It seems no matter what side you are on, Republican or Democrat, you are terrified that the other person will win, and if that happens, it is the end of the world as we know it.If we aren’t worried about politics, we are worried about something. There is so much that we tend to worry about. Many of us have children or marriages we worry about. Some don’t have children or a spouse, and they worry about that, and they worry if that will ever happen. Some worry about their jobs and whether they will lose their job or they worry about changes within their job. Others worry about growing older and all that entails. I know some people who are sick and are worried about what will happen. Will they get better? Will they die? Will they be sick for a long time? Can they handle all the pain and the not knowing how long it will last? As you can see, it seems like we have plenty to worry about.However, The Lord is constantly telling us not to be afraid. He tells us “Fear not” a lot in the Bible, and He also tells us almost every week in our Prayer Group. Here are some examples of what the Lord is telling us in our prayer group. These were all received in just one month, August of 2024.“My children, all I tell you to do know that you can. My spirit empowers you. It puts my words into your mouth so that you can reach the hearts of others. It's not you. It is my spirit empowering you to say what I wish you to say. Do not fear to go out, I keep telling you, fear not. My spirit is with you, and He will provide whatever you need to succeed. I am your God. I am all powerful. There is nothing that I cannot do. Trust in my word. Trust that what I say is true and go about your way and make me known, my children. How many times must I tell you, you can because I send you. You can because I am your God, and I provide the power; whatever you need, I provide. It is as simple as that, my children. Be not afraid to move and do what I tell you.”The very next week, We received the verse that I picked for today, and then we received the following words and scripture.“I just had a deep sense from the Lord that he's saying to us. Well, I guess what he's always said to us is that we have nothing to fear and that we need to put our hope in His word and what He has promised us. No one will put an end to us. He has come to save us. And He will save all of our offspring as well. He's going to call them back from their lands, and we need to keep that in the forefront of our thoughts and our thinking as we thank Him every day for what he's doing because He is the victor of the world.”Then some else said, “I just want to confirm all that's been said so far because I come up with three psalms and each one said the same thing that everyone has said in a different way.”Psalm 91:9-16 “Because you have the LORD for your refuge and have made the Most High your stronghold, No evil shall befall you, no affliction come near your tent. For he commands his angels with regard to you, to guard you wherever you go. With their hands they shall support you, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You can tread upon the asp and the viper, trample the lion and the dragon. Because he clings to me I will deliver him; because he knows my name I will set him on high. He will call upon me and I will answer; I will be with him in distress; I will deliver him and give him honor. With length of days I will satisfy him, and fill him with my saving power.”Then someone different received the word, “There is no fear. We live in fear. We allow fear to creep in. I hear the Lord saying, every time a negative thought, a fear creeps in, send it to the feet of Jesus. Do not allow it to consume you for one second, and when you've done that, call the Holy Spirit into your life to show you how to combat the enemy faster.”Then, another week in the same month, someone received this Word, “I hear your cries, my children. Come to me, come to me in your brokenness. Do not be afraid to come. I will help you. But in my time. Wait patiently, and I will show you a way out. Know that all is possible when you trust and believe. I am here. Do not doubt it. I do hear your cries. I do feel your pain. Continue to trust, continue to believe, and I will help you.”All of these Words from the Lord and the scripture verses were given in the sa

Sacrifice Is The Heart of WorshipPsalm 95:6-8 “O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice!”This verse was received at prayer group yesterday, and when I read it this morning, I thought it would be a great one for today’s devotional. It talks about worshiping the Lord and hearing the Lord’s voice. These are both things I love to talk about, so it seemed perfect. I also think they are great topics to end the week with. I believe the world could be a much better place if more of us were worshipping the Lord instead of all the things in this world that we worship.I was listening to Father Mike Schmitz's sermon from Sunday, October 27th, yesterday on Spotify, and I really enjoyed it. He talked about how the heart of worship is sacrifice. He said you can tell how important something is to someone by what they are willing to sacrifice for it. I thought this was interesting and also challenging at the same time. Everything involves a sacrifice or at least a giving of something. For instance, if you want to eat healthily, you need to give up your soda, your junk food, and your comfort foods. If you want to watch TV, you need to give up that time that could have been spent doing something else. If you want to worship God, you need to give Him your time.Father Mike talked about one of the biggest times to Worship the Lord int he Jewish culture was Passover. He described how the Jewish people would sacrifice a lamb to the Lord at Passover. However, they wouldn’t just buy a lamb and then sacrifice it. They would buy a lamb the Sunday before Passover and they would bring this lamb into their home. They would live with this lamb for a week. They would begin to care for this lamb, they may even love this lamb by the end of the week as they have just spent the week taking care of it. Then, they would carry this lamb upon their shoulders and bring it to the temple to sacrifice it to the Lord. They would do this every year.All this talk about sacrifice being the heart of worship really challenged me. It challenged me because I am in a season where sacrifice is hard for me. Well, true and meaningful sacrifice is hard for me. These days, it seems I am all too happy to sacrifice my productive time so that I can watch TV. However, what am I getting from the TV? What is that saying about what I am worshipping? I am really struggling with sacrificing for the Lord. My heart wants me to fast, and my brain finds all these reasons why I can’t. My heart wants to spend more time alone with the Lord, and yet I find myself watching TV instead.I am not sure why sacrifice is so hard for me right now. Sometimes, it comes much easier. I used to be pretty good at fasting or not watching TV. I am not sure why it is more of a struggle these days, other than the fact that life is not always linear. I heard this term when I was teaching about the dark night of the soul, and I think it not only applies to that, but it applies to all of life. Sometimes, we can think that life is like a mountain we are climbing, and we climb this mountain slowly and steadily, and then we reach the top. However, have you ever really climbed a mountain or seen someone climb a mountain? Yes, slow and steady is a good pace, but you aren’t always moving forward. Sometimes, you slip and fall. Sometimes, you catch yourself right away, and other times, you slide down a bit before getting back up again. Sometimes, there will be a big cliff you can’t climb directly, so you need to take another path, which might not be headed up the mountain, but rather around the mountain until you find a safe way up the mountain.Do you see how walking up the mountain is probably not just a straight path up? Life is like this. It is not linear, meaning we go from one step to the next to the next. Sometimes, we go to the next step, and then we regress back three steps, then we take the next right step. Life is a process. It is one we all go through, and I am sure if you look over your life, you will see that it didn’t always feel like you were moving forward. Sometimes, it felt like you were moving backward.I think going into this weekend; we can remember what Father Mike said about the sacrifice being the heart of worship. How can we worship the Lord better this weekend? What can we sacrifice in order to show our love for the Lord? If we look at what we are already sacrificing in our lives, that will show us what we are worshiping right now in our lives. What are you worshiping? For me, I think it is food and TV, but I wish it was the Lord. This weekend I will spend some time talking with the Lord and seeing what He thinks I should be sacrificing.Which brings me to the second part of this verse. The last line of this verse says, “ For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would

No More MasqueradeColossians 3:7-9 "That's how you once behaved, characterized by your evil deeds. But now it's time to eliminate them from your lives once and for all – anger, fits of rage, all forms of hatred, cursing, filthy speech, and lying. Lay aside your old Adam self with its masquerade and disguise.”There were two things I liked about these verses this morning. The first is that they tell us it is time to eliminate certain behaviors from our lives once and for all. These behaviors are anger, fits of rage, all forms of hatred, cursing, filthy speech, and lying. I was drawn to this because those are things I think we would all get rid of if we could. I don’t think any one of us likes being angry or having fits of rage. Many would love to give up hatred, cursing, filthy speech, and lying too. However, it is what we know. We might think it is who we are. If this is the case, then how do we give these things up? How do we stop doing something that we feel has become part of who we are?The first step in changing anything is acknowledging the need for change. If we don’t think anything needs to change, then nothing will change. Once you realize something needs to change, your brain will subconsciously start to think of ways it can help you change. However, that doesn’t mean you will implement these new changes immediately. It often takes us a while to make changes, especially if there are changes in things that we have done or have not done for a while. For instance, I know I need to work out every day. I want to work out, and yet I can’t seem to fit it into my schedule.It takes time to change things about ourselves. We can’t just stop doing the thing we want to change. We need to replace that behavior with another behavior. For instance, if we usually curse when we are mad, we will need to find something else to do instead. This will be much more effective than just trying to stop doing it altogether. My dad used to tell us this when we were younger. He would try to tell us that we should pick a replacement for the bad words we would get into trouble for saying. Then, when we would say the bad word, immediately after saying it, we would say the word we wanted to replace it with. This seemed to work for us, at least a little.How do we stop getting angry, though? How do we stop experiencing rage? I don’t think the people who experience them do it because they want to. I think the people want to act this way; they just can’t help it. I think the solution to this is to live more intentionally. We need to be proactive instead of reactive. We need to go through life deciding how we want to act instead of just reacting to everything that happens.My kids used to push my buttons like it was their job. They knew just what to say to make me yell or get really upset. I would get so mad and occasionally would say things I didn’t mean but felt like I couldn’t help it. However, I finally learned how to resist reacting negatively to their words or their actions that were meant to upset me. If I can do it, you can too. It was not easy, but it is doable! Which thing listed in this verse is something you need to stop doing?The second thing I liked about these verses is when they say, “Lay aside your old Adam self with its masquerade and disguise.” Adam and Eve brought sin into this world, and it was shared with all of us. However, Jesus brought that sin to the cross so that we could be a different person. Why are we still acting like our old selves, full of sin and shame? Also, why are we hiding ourselves? When I saw the last line in this verse today, it made me think of a song. I know you are not surprised, as I tend to always think of songs. However, there is a song that talks about how we are all masquerading and what if we just took our masks off. I believe that is what this verse is calling us to do.The song I thought of is called Cages by We the Kingdom. Here are the lyrics.What if I got real honest?What if I took a risk?What if I opened up my heartAnd let you see in?What if I took my mask off?Trying to fit inI don't wanna be a mannequinWhat if we took our masks off? What if we were just who God created us to be? What if we let go of all the anger, fits of rage, hatred, cursing, filthy speech, and lying? Why do we do those things anyway? Do we enjoy them, or is it so that we will fit in with those around us? Do we do it so we will feel normal?What if I let my guard down?What if I took a breath?What if I wasn't perfect?What if I was just a mess?What if I bled my soul outGivin' all I could give?What if we let our guard down? What if we weren’t always trying to be perfect? What if we just let the world see us for the mess that we really are? Would that really be so bad? Can you imagine how freeing it would be to just feel comfortable being yourself? That is what this verse is calling you to do. Stop pretending and just be you.I'm so tired of pretendingI'm comin' out of my cagesI'm steppin' down from my stagesI'm sick an

Today’s witnesses are from Matthew West’s website called popwe.org. If you don’t know who Matthew West is, he is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller. This website is for the non-profit that he has with his father, a pastor. Matthew and his father encourage people to share their stories. They have various categories of stories. Today, I chose four testimonies from the Addictions and Deliverance Category. Today's witnesses are about how people who were addicted to drugs and, through the intervention of God, their lives were changed. I know people who are really suffering right now because of drugs or addictions, and so I thought these witnesses might give all those affected by addiction some hope and encouragement. God is not done in your situation or your loved ones' situation. If it’s not good, God’s not done! Often, we can hear our own story in someone else’s story. When we listen to others tell their story, it helps us see that we are not alone. When we hear how God worked in their situation, it gives us hope that He will work in ours, too! I pray when you hear this testimony, you get the faith and hope to believe that miracles can happen in your situation, also. I pray you know that God is there with you, and if you invite Him into your situation, He can help. I hope you enjoy these testimonies.First we have Jim: The story I have is 100% God!!! In the darkest days of my opiate addiction, I went to jail. Then, I received a three-year sentence. I had never been in trouble as a teenager or a young adult. At one point, I overdosed and if God had not put air in my lungs, I would have died. Nobody was around and nobody would have been there for days. God knows our hearts and I went to Greater Cleveland Teen Challenge and completed that phase. Then, I went on to Cape Girardeau Missouri where I completed an additional ten-month program. Jesus Christ set me free from the bondage of drugs and alcohol! Thank you, Lord, for your sovereignty and for calling me out of the darkness and into Your marvelous light!Next is Jane: God hears you when you cry out to Him, and I can tell you that it’s true! When I was deep in the trap of addiction to alcohol and cocaine, I would cry out to God in desperation to remove it from me because it was literally killing me. He heard my cries, and in perfect timing, through a car accident, He released me from my addiction! The night of the accident, I wasn’t under the influence of any substances, and the accident was caused by the other driver. We were both injured, but God took away my addiction that night and at that moment! It was a true miracle, and I hope that someone who has these struggles will be encouraged by my story. God is a way-maker, and He will remove your addictions if you keep crying out and believing in the power of Jesus! There have been many more miracles in my life, but I chose this one in hopes of helping a brother or sister in need!The third one there is a story of a girl whose family did not protect her. I grew up in an abusive home where I was sexually trafficked by my mother to other family members. I told my pastor, my teachers, doctors, and nurses. No one did anything. So I grew to believe that I was unworthy, unlovable, and useless unless the person had an ulterior motive. I became seriously depressed to the point that I was diagnosed with medically-resistant depression. I was suicidal and thought of ways to kill myself daily. I sought counseling but it always failed to benefit me. I attended a depression and anxiety recovery program in November 2018. I had a gun in one hand and pills in the other and told God if He didn’t get me in the program that I was done. I met a man named Paul with a ministry called “Straight 2 the Heart” who taught me about Jesus’s suffering and being tempted with my negative thoughts. In the prayer process, receivers listen for God’s still small voice and encouragement. So often that encouragement has come in Matthew West’s songs as God reminds me of my identity and value. I’ve been sober and off of narcotic prescriptions and hard liquor for just over 2 years. Thank you for letting me share.Last but not least we have Karryn: I grew up in a good family, but I’d never felt loved. I didn’t know why. I was also a very good liar since I was young, and I never understood why about that either. I have been listening to Matthew West’s music since the first time I went into rehab in 2015. That was the first time I was introduced to Christianity. I was a bad methamphetamine addict. After rehab, I had my ups and downs. I had two beautiful sons, Jaz and Lucas, but I never put them first. In 2019, I went back into rehab, a Christ centered facility. But, I ended up leaving to be with my boyfriend, Dallas, whom I really loved. He was about 700 miles away from me. I got pregnant soon after we reunited, but we continued to use drugs. We lost everything. We were living in a tent, and were hurt both physically and mentally by the people in that scene.

How Fleeting Life IsPsalm 39: 4-6 ““LORD, make me to know my end, And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am. Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my age is as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor.” Selah “Surely every man walks about like a shadow; Surely they busy themselves in vain; He heaps up riches, And does not know who will gather them.””This was a verse that was received during my prayer group last week. I wanted to get a deeper understanding of what the verses meant, so I went online to the Enduring Word Bible Commentary that I learned about not that long ago. I believe it is a minister who has compiled a commentary on the different books of the Bible. He helps to explain it so we can all understand what is being said in a little more detail. Sometimes it is nice to know what certain things meant back in the time when they were written. Yes, the Bible is a living Word that is just as true today as it was the day it was written.However, sometimes it is nice to be able to understand why they chose to use certain words or if those words had a different meaning back when the Bible was written. Also, the Bible was not originally written in English, so sometimes the word that was used in the Greek or Hebrew edition is not an exact translation into English, and I love to hear what the word they actually used meant and how it is different than the English word. This stuff is discovered by theologians who study scripture and the ancient times and fill us in on all that they learn. I love learning more in-depth explanations of what the Scripture is really telling us. Today I will share with you the explanation I found on the enduring Word Commentary website as I think He explained it very well.First, it says, LORD, make me know my end: David’s silence was broken in the best way – by humble prayer to God. He would not speak his fears and doubts before the wicked, but he would pour them out before His God. Here, David asked God for wisdom – specifically, the wisdom to know the shortness and the frailty of his life (that I may know how frail I am).We might have expected David to break his silence by telling off his enemies or by defending his own righteousness. He did neither; he sought God for wisdom. “It is well that the vent of his soul was Godward and not towards man. Oh! if my swelling heart must speak, Lord let it speak with thee.” (Spurgeon)Next it says, Make me to know my end: “This was not a prayer inspired by a desire to know when life would end; it was not a request to be told the date of death. It was a prayer for an accurate apprehension of the fact that life quantitatively – that is, as to the number of its days – is as nothing.” (Morgan)Then, You have made my days as handbreadths: “He compares it to a ‘handbreadth,’ one of the smallest units of measurement in ancient Israel. It is equivalent to a couple of inches.’” (VanGemeren)“Life is very short, but a great deal may be done. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in three years, saved the world. Some of his followers in three years have been the means of saving many and many a soul.” (Spurgeon)Next, Certainly, every man in his best state is but a vapor: David was a champion, an accomplished Special Forces warrior, a leader, a celebrity, a skilled poet, a musical genius, a survivor, and a king. If anyone might have thought more highly of himself, David had the right to. Yet he understood that he, like every man, is – at his best state – merely a vapor, a puff of steam or smoke.“He learns that, since life is short, the only real meaning of a man or woman’s existence must be in his relationship to God, for God is eternal.” (Boice)Next, the word Selah: The idea in Hebrew for this word (occurring 74 times in the Old Testament) is for a pause. Most people think it speaks of a reflective pause, a pause to meditate on the words just spoken. It may also be a musical instruction for a musical interlude of some kind.This Selah is an appropriate call for each one to pause and think of the shortness and frailty of his life. It should drive us to great dependence upon God and great earnestness about life and doing good in the short time we do have.It goes on to say, Surely they busy themselves in vain. Sounding very much like the later Book of Ecclesiastes, David thought about the mass of humanity who lived, ignoring the shortness and frailty of life.· Each of them walks about, but like a shadow, living a life with no substance.· They are busy but in vain, being blind to eternal things.· Each of them works hard and heaps up riches, yet does not think beyond his own short and frail life.This is the land of shadows. Heaven is the land of reality, of true high definition.“Every man that exists is vanity. All his projects, plans, schemes, etc., soon come to nothing. His body also molders with the dust, and shortly passes both from the sight and remembrance of men.” (Clarke)I know today was a bit more tech

Keep A Tight Rein on Your TongueJames 1:26-27 “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”There were two things that really stood out to me in this morning’s verses. The first one is when it says, “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.” I think we all know people who claim to be religious and yet say all sorts of unkind things about other people. Sometimes, I don’t think they even know what they are saying is wrong.They may think they are just saying things that are true, so it is not a big deal. However, sometimes that is gossiping about others. We need to stop and ask ourselves, does this person need to know this thing about the other person? Why am I telling them them? Is it so they know this person a bit better? Is it because I don’t agree with it, and I want others to reassure me that I am right and this other person is wrong? Am I just talking about this other person because it makes me seem like I know things others do not know?We might get caught up in gossip not because we want to but because everyone around us is gossiping, and we don’t know how to avoid it. I have been in this situation before where those around me were talking about someone, and I didn’t want to participate, and yet I also felt like I didn’t have a choice. I didn’t want to seem like I thought I was better than anyone else, and I didn’t want to speak up and then make them feel judged. However, what I am realizing right now is that it is more important for me to think about how God is thinking about me than it is about those who are around me. Also, I am doing them a disservice if I don’t speak up, as God is not happy when we gossip. If we love our friends and family, we should do all we can to get them into heaven. This means if we see that they are gossiping, we can let them know that we don’t want to participate and that God doesn’t want us to gossip.I do think how we tell them this is important. I think whenever we see something, and we feel called to speak up, we must always speak up out of love and genuine concern for their soul. We should speak with nothing but love in our voices. We shouldn’t be filled with judgment or condemnation. When Jesus was here on Earth, He saw all sorts of wicked things, and yet he didn’t condemn people; he convicted them, and many of them changed their ways. He did not talk down to them, although He could have because he was fully God and fully human. He did not make them feel bad about what they were doing. He made them feel loved. Jesus loved them completely just as they were, and that was something people had never felt before. They did not change because He yelled at them and told them what they were doing was wrong. They did not change because of his judgment or condemnation. They changed because of His love for them. Those around you deserve the same. They need your unconditional love for where they are right now, and then they will begin to move towards where the Lord wants them to be!The second thing that stood out to me in this verse is the last line. “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” I love this because it reminds us that religion is not just a set of beliefs. It is a way of life. It is not just a set of words and prayers, but it is action as well. We can’t just talk a good game and not live it out. We can’t talk about how important it is to take care of those who don’t have anything and yet do nothing to help those in need.The verse says, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by this world.” We have to take care of the orphans and the widows in distress. What does this mean? Does this mean if we see a homeless kid on the street we need to pick him or her up and take them home? No, but it does mean we should do something, not just walk buy and pretend we don’t see them. That seems to be what most of us do. It is too hard to look at them. We don’t have to give them money because we heard that is bad because they will just use it for drugs. So, we don’t know how to help them, and so we ignore them and pretend we don’t see them. This hurts them. Have you ever had someone walk right by you and pretend not to see you? It is not a good feeling.There are plenty of ways we can help those in need. We can physically go out and help them. For instance, I have a few friends who go out to the streets and talk with the homeless. They learn their names, spend time with the

The Lord Is My RefugePsalm 91:9-13 “Because you have made the Lord your refuge, the Most High your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, no scourge come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot.”These verses were given at one of our evening prayer group meetings last month. When I saw it in my notes and looked it up this morning, I thought it was a great verse to talk about today. The first line is great. “Because we have made the Lord your refuge, the Most High your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, no scourge come near your tent.” This is amazing. Yet it also makes me wonder, have I made the Lord my refuge? I feel like I have had evil befall me, so what does that mean? Does that mean that I haven’t made the Lord my refuge?I think when we read certain passages in the Bible, we can wonder things like this. This is why it is super important not to take verses out of context. It is also important to look at everything the Bible says as a whole when trying to understand scripture. Psalm 91 speaks about God's protection, but it doesn't suggest that believers will never face hardship or experience evil. Instead, it emphasizes God's presence, care, and protection in the midst of difficulties. Verses like Psalm 91:2-3 declare:"I will say of the Lord, 'He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.' Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence."However, this protection doesn’t mean that nothing bad will ever happen. Instead, it points to God being a refuge during difficult times and offering ultimate protection, even when facing dangers or evil. The psalm uses symbolic language to show how God can shelter and protect from harm, but that doesn't imply that no adversity will ever come into a believer's life. In fact, other parts of Scripture acknowledge that faithful people can suffer (e.g., Job, Jesus' teachings, and the Psalms of lament).Psalm 91 reminds believers that even when evil befalls them, God is their refuge, and they can trust in Him for strength, comfort, and, ultimately, deliverance. It also speaks of spiritual protection—preserving the believer's soul, even when physical or material harm occurs. Therefore, facing adversity doesn't mean God is not your refuge, but rather it may be a time to deepen your trust in Him.Next, the verse says, “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands, they will bear you up so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” Can you even believe that God commands his angels to guard us in all our ways? I have heard many stories of when people have been saved by angels. One of them was from someone in my prayer group. She was out driving her school bus in a snowstorm when her windshield wiper stopped working. She pulled over to the side of the road. She didn’t have any kids on the bus because she was about to park the bus for the night at the bus lot. She didn’t know what she was going to do because she couldn’t drive without windshield wipers, and the snow was really coming down. She prayed for the Lord to help her.Right after she finished praying, she saw lights in her rearview mirror. Another bus had pulled in behind her. The driver got out and fixed her windshield wipers. They both got back on their way. When my friend got to the lot to park the bus, she asked them who the driver was and who stopped and helped her. They said there were no other drivers. She was the only one still out. She said she knew it was an angel that helped her. Here are a few that I found online:A young woman was saved from a home invasion when something prevented the attacker's hands from touching her. A hospice social worker was able to avoid a large van with a metal ladder on top after hearing a voice say, "Both hands on the wheel." A mother was praying in her room when she read a verse that said, "And the Lord will provide your wages." A young lady knocked on the door and handed her an envelope containing a good amount of cash. A couple were about to miss their flight to Bermuda when an attendant found a packet of landing papers on the counter. The attendant called the plane back to the gate, and the couple was able to board. A man on a bicycle almost hit someone walking down a hill in Jerusalem, but his bike seemed to hit an invisible wall, and he fell over. I think sometimes we think our problems are too practical for God. We don’t ask for things because we can’t see a way that He could help us. We think He is up in heaven, and sure, He can orchestrate big things to happen, but He can’t really help me with my practical problem of needing $50 right now so I can pay my bill. I believe He can help me find a job, but how is He able to make sure my car

Today, I want to tell you about the retreat I had a few weekends ago. I felt like I would have more people at this retreat than last year. I did have many more people I invited who said they were interested in coming. However, most said they wanted to go but could not make it for the weekend that I booked the retreat house. Three weeks before the retreat, I asked the retreat director, Nancy, a question, and at that time, I only had four people signed up. She told me that she could not pay her staff to come in for just four people. I totally understood this and yet was devastated that I may have to cancel the retreat.Nancy was super sweet and said that I could still use the retreat house to have the retreat, I would just need to provide the food. She said she would reduce the amount of money that I needed to pay to use the retreat house and that she and her husband would take care of reheating the food, picking up takeout, or helping with whatever we decided to do for food for the weekend. She said she didn’t want me to have to cancel on those who had already signed up. I prayed about it and felt like the Lord still wanted me to have the retreat, even if it was just for four people.Over the course of the next few weeks, I had four more people sign up, so we were up to 8. Then, two of them had things come up, and they were unable to come. We were down to 6, but with me, that was seven, and I thought that was an ok number. I had wanted more to come, but I understood that people had things going on that weekend. About a week before the retreat, I talked with a friend of mine, and she said she was able to come. This brought us up to 8, including myself. I thought that was a pretty good number. Then, the Wednesday before, another friend asked if she could come. She said she didn’t originally sign up because she needed to cover for someone at church, but that person came home from her trip early, and she was free to come. Then, on Friday morning, another friend called up and asked if it was too late for her to come. She really needed a retreat weekend and was wondering if she could come. I checked with the retreat house, and Nancy said it was not a problem. So, the final count was 10 of us at the retreat. I thought this number was small, but those in attendance were happy that there weren’t too many people because it meant they didn’t have to be nervous spending the weekend with 40 other women that they didn’t know. They all got to know each other pretty well. By the end of the weekend, they were hugging each other, exchanging numbers and Facebook profiles, and promising to keep in touch. It was such a great weekend, and it was really great to see the beginning of what I know will be some amazing friendships. I think that is part of the magic of retreat. There are so many nice parts about the retreat: the talks, the activities, and the food, but one of the best is the fellowship with others going through the same kind of stuff. We may not all be going through the exact same stuff, but we are all going through stuff, and to get the opportunity to spend a weekend with other people who are going through stuff and who also love Jesus is a great thing!Remember above when I said Nancy said I could still use the retreat house, but I would need to provide the food? I was trying to think of what I should do for food. I thought maybe I could do takeout, like pizza and pasta, or maybe grinders. However, now there were ten people, and takeout would get expensive. And what would I order that everyone would like? I decided it would be good to do casseroles. This way, I could make them ahead of time throughout the week, and it wouldn’t be a lot of work for Nancy and her husband. They could just put them in the oven to reheat them.I spoke with my sister Liz, who is a master party planner. Well, her day job is as a counselor, but her passion is party planning, and she is so good at it. She also loves meal planning and meal prep. She said she could come over the weekend before, and we could make stuff and freeze it. She and another sister, Dee, came over the Sunday before, and we made four quiche, two nondairy egg casseroles, beef stew, chicken noodle soup, and two ranch chicken and potato casseroles. It was amazing because it only took a few hours, and yet we had both days of breakfast taken care of; we had one dinner and one lunch taken care of. I had decided the other dinner would be a chicken and stuffing casserole that I couldn’t make in advance because it is not great to freeze stovetop stuffing. I was also going to cook up some hamburger meat for the second lunch so we could have tacos. What seemed like it was going to be really difficult turned out to be really easy, and everyone ended up really happy with the food.When it finally came time for the actual retreat, it was amazing! Everyone hit a lot of traffic, so we started late, and yet no one seemed to mind. We started with introductions, and then we ate dinner together.

Consider Life's Challenges A GiftJames 1:2-4 “Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.”I love how God works. Sometimes, I just laugh at how he orchestrates everything and how He just knows what we need to hear. It’s like He keeps telling you something in a bunch of different ways until we get it. If you have been listening to this podcast for any amount of time, you probably know how much I love talking about healing. I love praying for people for healing. I believe with my whole being that God can heal everyone, and I will pray with anyone who will let me for God to heal them. As you can probably imagine, not everyone I pray with for healing is healed. This confuses me as I don’t understand why this is.I know that God’s ways are higher than our ways and that God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts. I know that God knows infinitely more than we do and that He sees the whole picture when we only see a tiny part of the picture. I know that He knows the future and that He knows what He is doing. I know all of this, and yet I still don’t understand why some people have healed on this side of heaven and some are not. I don’t understand why some people are healed instantly and some take months or years. God and I chat about this often, and He keeps trying to explain it to me, and I don’t seem to be getting it.This month’s theme is the dark night of the soul. If you are unfamiliar with this, the "Dark Night of the Soul" refers to a spiritual crisis or period of deep inner struggle and desolation, where a person feels distant from God or disconnected from their sense of purpose and meaning. It often involves intense feelings of doubt, confusion, and loss but is ultimately seen as a necessary stage in spiritual growth or transformation. The term originates from the writings of the 16th-century mystic St. John of the Cross, who described it as a painful yet purifying experience that leads to a closer union with God. I had heard of this before. However, I did not know much about it. However, this is what a few people in mentoring wanted me to cover, so I did some research and learned a lot about it.Yesterday, I decided to get an audiobook by Thomas Moore called, “Dark Nights of the Soul: A Guide to Finding Your Way Through Life’s Ordeals.”In this book, Thomas Moore talks about how we are always trying to end difficult times quickly. If we are sick, we want to be healed immediately. If we are struggling emotionally, we want the struggle to end quickly. If we are uncomfortable in any way, we want to do whatever we need to do to get comfortable as quickly as we can. Thomas said in his book that we are doing ourselves a disservice when we do this. Instead of trying to escape our misery, what if we approached it with curiosity? What if we tried to understand it and what it was trying to teach us? This seemed to stand out to me because I was just talking to a friend the other day about how I just wanted her trouble to end. She was saying that she could see how she would be so much stronger when she was on the other side of this, and I was just thinking, God, can you stop these bad dreams now? Why wait, why keep struggling?Now, to be clear, although God could stop these bad dreams now, He hasn’t chosen to do so. It is not as if she hasn’t prayed for them to stop. It’s not as if plenty of people haven’t prayed for them to stop. So, it got me thinking maybe Thomas Moore is on to something here. Maybe I am just in a rush to have God heal these people because then they will be more comfortable or out of pain or misery, and yet God knows that the uncomfortable feelings that they feel now are nothing compared to the glory they will feel if they just hold out a little longer.I have been talking to the Lord for a long time now to try to understand why He does what He does, especially with regard to healing. When I heard this explanation from Thomas Moore, I felt like the Lord was talking directly to me. Then I went to a meeting at Encounter last night where about 16 of my graduating class got together. We try to do this once a month. The topic for last night was a renewal of the mind. We all asked Jesus to show us one place where He would like to renew our minds. This is what I felt like I heard the Lord say, “I would like to renew your mind around healing. Not every person needs to be healed. Sometimes, I do work within the illness I will highlight those I want to be prayed over.” Next, I asked Jesus how He wanted me to think about this mindset. This is what I thought I heard, “I want you to think like I do I want you to know I have my own ways of thinking and reasons for healing that have nothing to do with your ability to pray over people. You are not

Set Your Minds On Things AboveColossians 3:1-3 “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”When I read this verse this morning, what stood out to me was when it said, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” This seemed to jump off the page for me. I think the reason for this is because Tony and I have been watching a new series lately. Well, it is actually an old series, but we just started watching it together recently. It is called The Mentalist. It is a really good show that we both really like. The problem with me getting involved in watching a series that I really like is that is all I want to do. I just want to watch the show all the time. However, that isn’t good when I have a job and a house to take care of. Tony and I did a good job of getting out of the house and doing yard work on Saturday. But then we were exhausted and watched about 4 hours of TV after that.I don’t think watching TV is bad.I think we could all use a break from life at times to just sit and watch something that takes our mind off of life. However, I wish TV was like it was back in the old days when you could watch one episode a week and then you had to wait a week for the next episode. I feel like that lends to moderation much better than streaming does. If you are streaming a show, it is so easy to get addicted and just watch that show and do nothing else for a week or longer. This last time I got COVID, I was stuck in my room for more than a week just to make sure I didn’t get the rest of the family sick. Tony was super sweet and made all the meals and took care of driving the boys to wherever they had to goThe first few days, I was pretty sick, and I had to sleep a lot. I was able to watch some TV, but mostly, I needed to sleep. However, once the first few days passed, I felt better, and I could have used that time in quarantine to get a lot of work done on my book or on something else. I could have cleaned the attic, which always seems to need cleaning. However, I just watched TV the whole time.I had gone to visit my brother in FL a few weeks earlier, and he and his wife were watching a TV show that looked really good. I thought it was just a few seasons, and I thought it had about 10-12 episodes a season. However, I was wrong. It has six seasons, with most seasons having 20-22 episodes. Each episode is 45 min long. Once I get started in a show, I get so involved all I want to do is watch the show. So, instead of doing something productive while I was sick, I just watched TV from when I woke up to way after I should have been asleep.I say all of this to explain why I think the words “Set your mind on things that are above” jumped off the page at me. Although I don’t think there is anything wrong with watching TV in moderation, I do feel binge-watching TV for hours upon hours is not good for us. Also, I think what we watch is important too. For instance, if I was binge-watching The Chosen or some TV show/movie about the Saints, then I think it would be better because it would help me grow closer to the Lord. Tony and I went to see the first few episodes of The Chosen, season 4, in the movie theater. We both really enjoyed it and yet we have yet to finish watching Season 4 because we are busy watching other things. Things that are not helping bring us closer to the Lord.There was a time several years ago when I was very disciplined. I made up my mind on something, and I would follow through. I seem to struggle with that these days. However, back then, I had decided I was watching too much TV, and it wasn’t helping me to be the person I wanted to be. The person God wanted me to be. So I decided I wouldn't watch TV or movies unless it was helping me grow closer to the Lord or unless it was spending time with my family.This was hard for me as our family was going through some very hard times and there were lots of times when I wanted to escape life and just veg in front of the TV. However, I had made a promise to myself that I wasn’t going to do this. I started watching movies, or episodes on the streaming platform called “Formed.” It is like Netflix, but it only has religious movies or shows. A lot of parishes will purchase a subscription for their whole parish so that all the parishioners can get a code and use it for free. I listened to some great audio teachings, and I watched some great movies about the Saints. It was a really good use of my time and it helped me grow closer to the Lord.What is the thing that is keeping you away from the Lord? Or, maybe it’s not keeping you away from Him, but it is keeping you from being as close as you could be to Him. Is it keeping busy, filling your schedule with so much stuff that you don’t have time to spend with the Lord? Is it Facebook o

My Help Comes From The Lord!Psalm 121:1-2 “I lift up my eyes to the hills—from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”I was going to do another part of this verse this morning, and then the song The Lord woke me up happened to be all about the beginning part of this verse. I will cover the other verse in a later episode. I really like this song because it reminds us of where our true strength comes from. It reminds us that no matter the situation we are in, our Lord is there, and He is looking out for us. We can often look to the world for the answer to our problems. We can look to the world for strength, and yet that is not where our strength is found. It says in Philippians 4:7, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” The Lord is where our strength comes from, not anything of this world. This is what the song reminds us. The song is called “Shoulders” by For King and Country.It begins by saying:… I look up to the mountainsDoes my strength come from the mountains?No, my strength comes from GodWho made heaven and earth, and the mountainsThis reminds us that our strength doesn’t come from the mountains it comes from the one that made the mountains. The one who made heaven and earth. Our strength comes from God, who is always there for us. He created everything, including us, and He is always with us.Next the song says:… When confusion's my companionAnd despair holds me for ransomI will feel no fearI know that You are nearGod is always near us. The enemy likes to use tactics like confusion on us because it can get us thinking about everything else other than God. He likes to get us focused on specifics and lost in all the weeds instead of focusing on what is most important. Which is that the Lord loves us and just wants us to love Him back. How we love Him can be different for each one of us. The enemy wants to get us confused and focused on all the wrong things. I like how the verse says, “And despair holds me for ransom.” Isn’t that a great visual of how despair works? When you feel despair, you feel hopeless. You feel like nothing will ever change, and you feel like you are held hostage by your feelings and your thoughts. However, you aren’t hostage. That is a trick from the enemy. The Lord wants you to be free. We don’t need to fear. We just need to remember that the Lord is always near us and that He is where our strength comes from. Whenever we are struggling, we can turn our eyes to the Lord and He will give us the strength that we need.The song goes on to say:… When I'm caught deep in the valleyWith chaos for my companyI'll find my comfort here'Cause I know that You are nearHow many of us have been caught deep in the valley? It wasn’t one we thought we would be in, it just kind of snuck up on us. I think we have all been in a valley at one time or another. Some valleys might be deeper than others, but we have all been in a valley. When we were in that valley, we had chaos for our companion. We were so confused because we knew God, we loved God, and yet we were in this valley and didn’t understand how we were there if we knew God.If you are in a valley right now, I want you to know that God is right there with you in this valley. I am not sure why He is allowing you to go through this valley, but I do know you are not alone in the valley. I know you may feel alone; that is what the enemy wants you to think, but you are never alone. God is walking right there by your side. In the chaos and the confusion of the enemy, you may not see or hear God, just know that He is there. Reach out to Him and talk with Him. I guarantee He is there with you! You are never alone! Not even for a second.Next the song says:… My help comes from YouYou're right here, pulling me throughYou carry my weakness, my sickness, my brokennessAll on Your shouldersYour shouldersThis reminds us that God is our help. He is the one who is right there by our side, pulling us through when we don’t think we can make it another day. Have you ever made it through something and wondered how you made it through? It was because God was pulling you through. He was making sure that the thing He was allowing to happen did not swallow you up and take you out. He knew you needed to go through it, but not so you could get lost in it or be defeated by it.It says, “You carry my weakness, my sickness, my brokenness all on your shoulders.” God does this for us. He doesn’t make us carry it alone. He takes our problems, our illness, and our brokenness and carries it on His shoulders to make our burdens a bit lighter. If you haven’t invited God into your current situation can I invite you to do so right now. You will be surprised how much lighter your burdens feel when you invite the Lord in to help you carry them.… My help comes from YouYou are my rest, my rescueI don't have to see to believe thatYou're lifting me up on Your shouldersYour shouldersAgain, this is reminding us that God is our rest and o

Be Strong & Courageous, for the Lord is With YouJoshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; be not frightened, neither be dismayed; for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”I saw this verse on my refrigerator this morning. A few years ago, someone gave me one of the desk calendars. Each day, there is a new page with a new picture. The photos are of amazing scenery worldwide, and each day has a different Bible verse on it. I hung this one on the fridge because I needed the reminder. Today, I know several of you need this reminder, too!This is a great reminder to be strong and courageous. A lot is going on in the world right now, both in our own families and our own houses and in the world at large. I know people who are scared because their loved ones had major surgery, and their recovery is going slow. They are worried that things won’t get back to normal or that it will be a long and painful road back to normal. I know someone who is living in her car right now and is tired of not having a safe place to sleep at night. I know someone else who is scared all the time, and she is not sure why. As you can see, there are a lot of reasons why I thought this would be a great verse for today’s devotional.In this verse, the Lord reminds us not to be afraid or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Do we know this already? I wonder if we are scared even though we know the Lord is with us always or if we forget this, and that is why we are scared. It can be one thing to know the Lord is always with you and another to know that He will take care of all things. I was talking with a friend the other day, and she knows the Lord is with her always, and yet she can’t help but be scared of things. This fear that she has did not just develop overnight. She has carried it with her from childhood and is only now finding some freedom from it.Isn’t it amazing how things from our childhood or past can have such a strong influence on our present and future? Often, we don’t even realize our past is creeping into our present. We know we are scared of something, but we don’t know what. Maybe we are scared of our boyfriend or husband leaving us. We don’t know where this fear is coming from, and yet, if we look back at our past history, we have had loved ones leave us. We might be afraid that our loved one will not recover completely from surgery, and when we look back, we see that in the past, we knew people who had surgery and didn’t recover.Our past can creep in and try to make us afraid of the future. This is one of the enemy's favorite tricks. He loves to use our past against us. He loves to point out all the places where we messed up in the past and try to get us to believe we will do it again. He loves to point out all the places where people have hurt us in the past and get us to believe they will do it again. We are not our past. Just because something has happened in the past does not mean it will happen again.It is not easy to be strong and courageous. If it was, everyone would be doing it, and this world wouldn’t be such a scary place. However, it is possible. It says in 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity but of power, love, and self-discipline.” We were not born with a spirit of fear and timidity. God created us with a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline. However, sometime in the course of our lives, a lot of us have lost or forgotten about the spirit that God created us with. We have become afraid and timid. It is time to reclaim our true nature, our true spirit.The question is, how do we do that? How do we reclaim our spirit of power, love, and self-discipline? I think we can do it by remembering what this verse tells us. We just need to remember that the Lord is with us wherever we go. I think sometimes we think that we can go places that the Lord won’t follow. For instance, we are stuck in a pit of despair, and so there is no way the Lord would be with us there. Guess what? He is right there next to you in that pit. We think He won’t follow us into the hospital or home from the hospital. He is right there next to you as you do your best to help your loved one. God does not leave your side no matter where you go. If you are sleeping in your car, God is sleeping right there next to you.God is always by our side, and the more we can remember this, the more we will be able to be strong and courageous. The more we believe that God is right there with us, the more we will trust in His protection. I have heard so many stories of people who have been scared and cried out to the Lord, and miraculous things have happened. For instance, one time, a woman was about to walk down an alley, and she saw a man who looked pretty scary at the end of the alley. She asked the Lord for protection. The next day, she read in the paper that a woman was attacked in that same ally that same night. She went to the police station to help ID the man

Today’s witnesses are from Matthew West’s website called popwe.org. If you don’t know who Matthew West is, he is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller. This website is for the non-profit that he has with his father, a pastor. Matthew and his father encourage people to share their stories. They have various categories of stories. Today, I chose a recorded testimony from the God Stories Category. Today's witness is about how two people met on an airplane and their lives were changed forever. God is so good when he orchestrates meet ups like this. Often, we can hear our own story in someone else’s story. When we listen to others tell their story, it helps us see that we are not alone. When we hear how God worked in their situation, it gives us hope that He will work in ours, too! I pray when you hear this testimony, you get the faith and hope to believe that miracles can happen in your situation also. I pray you know that God is there with you, and if you invite Him into your situation, He can help. I hope you enjoy this testimony. 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

Wisdom for Beginners (Part 5)Sirach 2:10-11 “Consider the generations of old and see: has anyone trusted in the Lord and been disappointed? Or has anyone persevered in the fear of the Lord and been forsaken? Or has anyone called upon him and been neglected? For the Lord is compassionate and merciful; he forgives sins and saves in time of distress.”This is the last verse in the section called Wisdom for Beginners. I think that it is fitting that it reminds us of how faithful our Lord has been. It begins with “Consider the generations of old and see: has anyone trusted in the Lord and been disappointed?” This is such a great thing to get in the habit of doing. When we are worried, stressed, or think the Lord has abandoned us, we can look back at our own lives and those who came before us and see if the Lord ever abandoned them. Has He ever abandoned us in the past?Has there been a time when we trusted in the Lord and He let us down or disappointed us? Has there been a time when we trusted in the Lord and yet after we did we realized that we shouldn’t have put our trust in Him? Romans 10:11 says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” You can trust in the Lord. You can believe His promises. You can trust that He will always be there for you.Next, it says, “Or has anyone persevered in the fear of the Lord and been forsaken?” We just talked about fear of the Lord the other day and how that doesn’t mean that we are afraid of the Lord; it means that we look up to the Lord with awe and reverence. It says in Psalm 111:10: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” It also says in Proverbs 14:26-27: "He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge.” When we have fear of the Lord, we are protected by Him. He is not only looking out for us, but He is looking out for our families as well. Our faithfulness and fear of the Lord will bear fruit for many generations.Next, it says, “Has anyone called upon Him and been neglected?” What about this one? Have you ever called out to the Lord, and He just ignored you? Have you ever needed Him, and He left you abandoned? The Lord does not do that. When we call out, He comes running. He sends His angels to fly to us at light speed. He does not leave us out in the cold. He does not hear us call out to Him and yet ignores us because He has more important things to do. God has nothing more important to do than to come when you call.I want to take a minute to talk about something because we must realize this. God is not limited by the same constraints of time as we are. I have been talking with someone recently who doesn’t ever want me to pray over him for healing. I was saying that I didn’t think this person believed that they could be healed by someone praying over them. They said that wasn’t true. They said it was just that they didn’t feel worthy and that God had other more important people to heal.I understand what this person was saying, and if this is what you are thinking too, then I want you to hear me when I say, “God has nothing more important to do than to heal you, or be with you, or answer your prayers.” God can be with each one of us fully and completely, and it won’t take away from anyone else. I first realized this when I heard a priest tell a story at a retreat one time. He said he was at a football game, and someone took a photo of him saying the rosary at a football game. The caption for the photo was something like, “Father is praying for the football game when there are bigger things we need to pray for, like people dying of cancer.”The priest said that if we think our God can’t be there at the football game and healing people with cancer at the same time, then our view of God is too small. When we limit God like this, we are putting Him in a box and saying that we don’t believe He is all-powerful. Either He is omnipotent and omnipresent, or He isn’t. An omnipresent god is a god with the ability to be everywhere all at once. If we believe that God is omnipresent, then He can be everywhere all at the same time. He can be healing you or answering your prayers wherever you are located, and He can be on all the other continents, healing people and answering your prayers, too! An omniscient God is a God who knows everything. Such a God would have the power to know the future, the present, and the past. God knows what you are going through, He knows what you have been through, and He knows what you are going to face in the future. God knows everything about you. An omnipotent God is a God with unlimited power. This means God has the power to heal you and everyone else that needs to be healed. It means that healing you doesn’t take away from anyone else’s healing.I think it is so important to understand this because we might think we are being humble by not asking God for healing. We think we are being selfless and giving up our healing so that someone else who needs healing can get it. However, what we are actuall

God’s Foolishness Is Wiser Than Human Wisdom1 Corinthians 1:25 “For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”When I read this verse this morning I thought it was very interesting and so very true. It is something I don’t thing we often think about. It is one of those things that when you hear it, you know it is true, but it might never have occurred to you. I think it is pretty obvious that God is wiser than we are and we know he is stronger than us. It would not be hard to find evidence to support this and yet I still don’t know if I would have thought of it like this before. His foolishness is wiser than human wisdom and his weakness is stronger than human strength. When I find a verse to use, I try to look at the verses around it to get the context and too see what else God wants to tell us. The verses right after this one are pretty good too. 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 says, “Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” One of my favorite verses/sayings is that God’s ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts greater than our thoughts. God does not think like we do and He does not do the things that we would do. If we really need a prayer answered, or a healing to occur, who do we tend to ask first? I tend to ask my dad first, as I know he prays a lot and I feel his prayers are answered quickly. I also tend to ask the ladies in my prayer group because again, I feel their prayers are heard. Many would go to a priest first. We tend to go to the people that we think are “holier” than we are. When someone needs a healing, they tend to want a priest to pray over them as they are very “holy.” We want the best of the best as we know the stakes are high for some of our prayers. What I felt the holy Spirit tell me when I began this verse is that is not how the Lord thinks. Jesus did not come to earth and ask all the teachers, or the priests at the time to be his apostles. He was not looking for the best and the brightest. He came and called many who were considered foolish, outcasts, or weak to the rest of the world. Some of us may feel we have a calling and then we start to think about all the ways we aren’t good enough to answer that call. We aren’t smart enough, we aren’t strong enough, we aren’t old enough, we aren’t young enough, we aren’t holy enough and so on. We list all the reasons why we can’t do the thing that God is calling us to do. Did you hear that last part, the thing God is calling you too. Why do we question our call when God is the one doing the calling? Don’t we know He is smarter than we are? If he says we are good enough, then we are good enough. If He says we aren’t too young, too old, to foolish, to sinful, then we aren’t. It’s crazy how if you asked us if God was wiser than we were we would say yes without any hesitation. Yet, when we question our worthiness of the call He has given us we are saying the exact opposite. We are saying that He must be wrong and that we know better than He does. When we start to question our calling and when we start to think of all the ways we are not enough, we should stop and think about all those that came before us. Were they the smartest people around? Were they the most holiest people around? Were they the ones you would have chosen? St. Catherine of Sienna is a doctor of the church and yet when she was a child she had great difficulty learning to read and did not learn to write until she was an adult. There were plenty of religious leaders at the time that Jesus came and yet He did not call the religious leaders to be his disciples, he called every day normal people like you and me. He also called people like Matthew, who was a tax collector. That is not someone any of the other apostles would have chosen. God knows what He is doing. He has placed a call on each and every one of us and it is a call He chose specifically for us. It is perfectly suited for our strengths and weaknesses. He knows us better than we know ourselves. Trust in Him and his ability to know you and what you can and can’t do.Right at the beginning of writing this episode I felt like the Holy Spirit was telling me that this is a two way street. He wants us to believe in our calling and also to believe in other’s calling as well. The same things I just said about your calling apply to others as well. Trust in the Lord’s ability to call others as

Truth, Wisdom, Instruction & UnderstandingProverbs 23:23 “Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.”Well, this is an interesting verse. I wonder how we would sell truth? I wonder why God needs to tell us to buy truth and do not sell it? Then He also says to buy wisdom, instruction and understanding. I was stumped on what this verse meant or what God was trying to tell us with this verse. However, when it is put into context of our prayer group it makes a little more sense to me. During prayer group the leader talked about how sometimes we think about all that we are lacking and we may even ask God what it is that we lack. This is because we are looking to ourselves to gain eternal life. We are looking to see what it is that we can do to get ourselves into heaven. The leader talked about how we need to trade our self reliance in for reliance on God. There isn’t anything we can do to get ourselves into heaven. We will get into heaven only through God’s grace. After the beginning part of our meeting we also had several words of prophecy that talked about how we are looking for God in all the wrong places. We are looking for Him in places that He does not dwell. He dwells deep within our hearts. He also said that He is there for us, but we are not looking to Him to solve our problems, we are looking to ourselves to solve our problems. He is asking us to turn our problems over to Him instead of trying to solve them on our own. In this context I can see how God would want us to buy truth, wisdom, instruction and understanding. We need to see the truth that we can’t do anything on our own and yet we can “do all things through Christ who strengthens me” Philippians 4:13. We need to not sell this truth for all the things the world tells us. We need to not sell this truth in order to believe that we can do things on our own. We need to not believe that God is too busy to help us. We need to not believe that God helps others but not us. We need to buy the truth and not sell it for any of these other false truths that the world is trying to sell us.Next, we need to ask God for Wisdom to know the difference. Wisdom is a gift from the Holy Spirit and according to the Catholic Church wisdom is the first and highest gift of the Holy Spirit. We believe that wisdom leads to an intimate understanding of God’s Word and His commandments. When we develop an intimate understanding of God’s Word and His commandments then we can better live out our faith. I believe this is why the verse above mentions truth and then puts wisdom, instruction and understanding in the same line. I believe wisdom leads to instruction and understanding. God has given us a lot of instruction in the Bible on how He wants us to live. There is no question as to what He says in the Bible. I think the question comes in when we try to interpret what He says in the Bible. The Bible was written almost 2,000 years ago. Well, the old testament was written long before that I believe. So, reading the bible is not like reading something that was written 10 years ago. Times have changed a lot. Although as I write that I wonder, have they? I mean yes technology has changed a lot, circumstances may have also changed a lot, but have we as people changed a lot? That I am not sure of. I think we tend to struggle with the same basic things as people struggled with back then. The same underlying sins are there, we just have a different spin on them. That is just my opinion.So, when it comes to reading the Bible, sometimes we can get caught up in the actual words of the Bible or the situation that they are talking about. We can read something and think that it doesn’t pertain to us because our situation is so different than that of the person of the Bible. We can’t really see any connection between how they are living and how we are living. This is why we need wisdom, instruction and understanding. We need wisdom to see how the situations in the Bible relate to our own situation. We need instructions on how we are to live our life right now in this century. We need understanding to know what is meant for us to read literally and what is meant as a story to teach us a lesson.There are different writing styles in the Bible. There are things that are a historical recount of what happened during that time. However, Jesus also teaches a lot of lessons through parables. There are also stories meant to teach us a lesson. If we have a deeper understanding of God’s work we would know the difference. Wisdom can come in many different ways I think. For instance, we don’t have to gain this understanding all on our own. There are many people who have studied the Bible for years and are happily sharing all they know about it. You can learn from them.I don’t think anyone gains the wisdom to understand everything all at once. For instance, I don’t think you will go to bed one day and then wake up the next day with all the wisdom you have ever wanted. I think

Today I decided I would do the Witness Wednesday as it has been a while since I have done one and God has definitely been working in my life. I think it is just as important to talk about the little ways God is working in our lives as it is to talk about the big ways He is working in our lives. Today I will give you an update on how I can see Him blessing me and my life.First, I will start with Noah going off to school. Noah applied to schools pretty late in the year compared to when I remember applying to schools. He also didn’t apply to a lot of schools. He knew where he wanted to go, so he just applied to a handful of schools. Noah’s dream was to go overseas, and so most of the schools he applied to were in the United Kingdom. (England, Scotland, & Wales). Noah decided to go to Edinburgh Napier University in Scotland. He found this out at the beginning of June. This meant we had three months to get all of the stuff in order so he could get there on time.Going to school in another country is a lot of work, at least initially. We had so many hoops to jump through. We had to do all the regular stuff like find a place to live and register. However, it just seemed so much harder than I remember it being. He also needed to do things I didn’t have to do when I went to school in the states, like get a visa. It was a long and tiring procedure, but the Lord was with us through all of it.For instance by the time we figured everything out and were able to apply for his visa it was August 14th. However they said the visa could take up to 15 working days to come in. If it took 15 working days then he wouldn’t be able to arrive in country until his first day of classes. This would have been ok, but he would likely have missed at least one day of classes while we got him settled in. However, thanks to the Lord, and the good people at the passport place, we got his visa back in about one week. We were not able to buy plane a plane ticket until we had it back. So once it came were were able to find pretty affordable tickets as well.I got to go with Noah to get him settled into school. I was nervous about leaving Noah in another country where he didn’t know anyone. I am sure most moms feel this way when their kids go off to school. However, I had the added worry of it being in another country. Thanks to the Lord, I was able to mostly focus on the fact that this was an awesome adventure for Noah and that he was going to have such a great time. However, I still hated that he was all alone. The second day we were there we went to their “Walmart” like store where they have a post office. We had to go here to try and pick up Noah’s residency permit. While we were shopping around we met another student there. He happened to also be going to Napier.He and Noah talked and they are both engineering majors. Not the same type of engineering, but that meant they would both be walking to the same campus from their dorms. They also found out of all the doors they have at Napier they would be living in the same building, just one floor apart. It was pretty cool! We also met his parents and exchanged info. Now, suddenly I wasn’t doing all of this alone. They were there to help along the way. We both sent text messages at the end of the day with what we had accomplished that day and any new information we found out. It was super helpful. Thank you Lord.Noah moved into his dorm on a Saturday and I went home on Monday morning. Saturday morning we took and Uber over to the dorm and moved his clothes and stuff he brought from home in. Then we spend the day shopping and getting the rest of what he needed. Then we went out and got some food also as he is living in an apartment and there is no meal plan there. The next day we went to lunch and more grocery shopping. Then I had to say goodbye. That was hard, and yet I know the Lord is with Him and that this is going to be an amazing year for him, and I am so excited for all he will get to experience.Next I want to tell you all about my new jobs. It is funny how the Lord works, because I knew this fall was going to be some kind of breakthrough. I knew something was going to change, I just didn’t know what. I had been praying about going back to work outside of the home. I decided I would go back to substitute teaching a few days a week. It would be a way where I could help contribute to the family income more than I have been and with Noah in school and Sam having his license, I only really have to drive Ryan around these days.One morning I was out to breakfast with a friend of mine and she mentioned she was looking to hire more coaches at her job. She told me about the job and it sounded great. I would be coaching people with autism. It was perfect for me as I love coaching and I love helping people. It felt like an answer to prayers as I really didn’t want to give up coaching and get having your own coaching practice takes a lot of time to build and over the last few years I decided I wanted to s

Wisdom For Beginners (Part 4)Sirach 2:7-9 “Fear the Lord. His mercy is never far away. Don't wander off and get lost. Fear the Lord, but believe in him; your reward is safe with him. Fear the Lord, but look on the bright side; there'll be blessings and mercies galore. You who fear the Lord, love him. He'll light your candles.”This is a continuation of the section called Wisdom for Beginners in Sirach. I was going to do this verse yesterday, and then I felt prompted to use the line right before this and talk about the various ways the Lord is speaking to all of us. I hope you will spend some time this week talking with the Lord and listening to what He has to say to you. Today I want to talk to you about fearing the Lord. Do you know what that means?I was confused for a long time because I didn’t fear the Lord, and I didn't want to. He is my father, why would I fear Him? Why is the Bible telling me to fear Him? It didn’t make any sense to me. However, when I joined the Charismatic prayer group, they did a teaching on this one day, and I have talked about it several times since then. Fear of the Lord means having awe in the Lord. We are in awe because of who He is and what He does. When I googled what “fear the Lord” means, one of the things that came up said that “Fear of the Lord” is a virtue that results in humble, loving obedience to God because of who he is. That sounds pretty good, too!When the verse above is talking about fearing the Lord, it is talking about having awe and reverence for God. It is not talking about actually being afraid of Him. We don’t have any reason to be afraid of God, and that is not what God would want either. However, we have plenty of reasons to be in awe of God and the amazing things He does every single day!The verse above starts out by saying, “Fear the Lord. His mercy is never far away.” I wish everyone knew this. God’s mercy is never far from you. I know AI had it’s downsides, but I am loving its ability to search the whole internet and answer a question in just a few seconds. Here is what it says about God’s mercy “God's mercy is God's compassionate and loving nature to act on behalf of those in need, even when they may not deserve it. The Bible describes God's mercy in many ways, including: God withholds punishment that people deserve for their sins. God provides what people need, such as food, forgiveness, and discipline. God shows mercy by healing and comforting those who are suffering. God's greatest example of mercy is sacrificing his son, Jesus Christ, on the cross to pay the price for people's sins. Could you use some of God’s mercy today? It is right there, ready for you to come to the Lord and ask.Next, the verse says, “Don’t wander off and get lost.” I love this because it is such a good reminder. Don’t we just love to wander off and get lost? We like to go down all these random paths even though we don’t know where they lead. We might follow this new idea or that one. Maybe something gets our attention and we don’t think it will lead us away from the Lord and then before we know we are lost and need to find our way back. It’s always nice to have the reminder to not wander off.Next, it says, “Fear the Lord, but believe in him; your reward is safe with him.” In another version, it says, “Your reward will not be lost.” We can trust the Lord with everything. We can trust that what we are not rewarded for in this lifetime will be in the next. We can trust that God sees everything. He knows all that we are doing, even the things we think no one saw. He knows how hard you are working. He knows how much you are struggling. He saw you help that person who was in need. He sees you and your reward is safe with Him. We can trust Him!Next, the verse says, “Fear the Lord, but look on the bright side; there'll be blessings and mercies galore.” The Lord has so many blessings in store for us. He has so much mercy for us. God is always telling our prayer group that He has so much more for us, but we are not asking. So, maybe a part of wisdom is asking the Lord for what you need. I talked with someone last night who said he has so many areas in his life where he could use the Lord’s help, and yet He just isn’t asking Him. This is all of us. We know the Lord can help us, and yet we figure He will just jump right in whenever He wants to.From what I have learned about the Lord, this is not the case. He waits for us to invite Him into a situation before He will jump in and take care of it. If you want to do things on your own, the Lord will let you. Would it be easier and quicker if we asked for help, absolutely! Would we feel better if we asked for help, yup! And yet, for some reason, we don’t. It is the same with God’s blessings and mercies. We don’t ask for them because we don’t want to bother God. He is busy and has much more important things to do. It may also be that we think we don’t deserve His mercy or His grace. There are so many others out there that are more deserving. T

God Is Talking To You, Are You Listening?Sirach 2:6 “Respect God and expect one beautiful friendship.”I love the first sentence in this verse. Respect God and expect one beautiful friendship. Did you know you could have a beautiful friendship with the Lord? Did you know you could sit and talk with Him, and you can listen to Him as well? I think this is something we should spend some time talking about today as I think this is something many people struggle to believe. God is talking to each one of us. I have been told that I am lucky because the Lord talks to me. I want you to hear me when I say He wants to talk to you, too. I know that is hard to believe. I know you are saying to yourself, “Who am I that God would talk to me?” You are a son or daughter of the one true king, that is who you are! Can you imagine having a son or daughter and not wanting to talk to them? God loves you and He wants to have a relationship with you. He wants to have a beautiful friendship as this verse says.Let’s take a look at some ways you can hear the Lord because I know if you try to hear the Lord, you will hear the Lord. I also know that we can get very caught up in our own heads and dismiss ourselves from hearing the Lord because we don’t think we are worthy or we don’t think we are holy enough. Jesus died on the cross to make us worthy, and we don't have to be holy to hear the Lord, but we do become more holy when we spend time listening to Him. He leads us to holiness.The first way I will talk about is how many people “hear” the Lord, and that is by getting a thought in our heads when we are talking to the Lord. For instance, you might be sitting and talking to the Lord, and you ask Him a question. If you stop and expect Him to answer you, the next thought you have in your head is probably from the Lord. It won’t sound like the Lord, and I mean this in two ways. First, most people do not audibly hear the Lord. Some have, and if you do, that is amazing! However, most don’t hear an audible voice it is more of a thought/answer that pops into their head when they have asked the Lord a question. Second, the answer that comes to you might not be in the language you think the Lord would use. It might sound like something you would say. For instance, when the Lord is talking to me, sometimes He will say things are amazing or awesome. It is ok if what you hear sounds a bit like something you would say. The Lord is communicating with you in a way you will understand. It is normal.A second way that the Lord may communicate with you is through visions. For instance, you ask Him a question, and then a picture comes into your mind that answers your question. Sometimes, it is just a still image, and sometimes, it is like a scene in a movie where things are movie, and it is not just a quick screenshot but rather a scene that plays out for a few seconds. Many people in my prayer group get visions and it is amazing to listen to them describe what they are seeing. I have gotten a few visions but that is not they way I usually communicate with the Lord.A third way the Lord may communicate with you is through your feelings. You may be trying to make a decision about something, and you ask the Lord which thing you should do. Then you notice that you feel strongly about one over the other. That could be the Lord guiding you. Also, sometimes the Lord will fill you with peace about a certain decision, whereas the other one you don’t have peace about. The Holy Spirit we have living inside of us is often the still small voice we hear when we are trying to make decisions. Take a minute and think back to a time when you “just had a feeling” about something. It is likely that it wasn’t just a feeling, it was the Holy Spirit leading you to where you needed to be.Another great way that the Lord talks with us is through Scripture or other things that we read. Did you ever have something weighing on your mind, and then when you read your Bible, you had more clarity on it, or you felt better about it? We can find answers in scripture. The Bible is a living document. You can read the same passage today, two months from now, and two years from now, and each time you read it, you will get something different from it, depending on what is going on in your life at the time. God is so good; He can personal it for each one of us. The next time you have a question or you want to spend some time talking with the Lord, open up your Bible and ask the Lord what He wants to tell you. I know you will be amazed at what He shares with you when you are open to hearing Him!The last way I will talk about today, although there are probably others, is that God can talk to us through other people. Have you ever been talking with someone, and something they say feels like an answer to something you have been talking to the Lord about? Isn’t that crazy when that happens? I have a friend, Anne, who knew the Lord was calling her to move, but she didn’t want to move. I mean, she wan

Wisdom For Beginners (Part 3)Sirach 2:4-6 “Accept whatever is brought upon you, and in changes that humble you be patient. For gold is tested in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation. Trust in him, and he will help you; make your ways straight, and hope in him.”I thought I would continue on in Sirach and cover the whole Wisdom for Beginners Section. It’s interesting because today, I was going to use the Message translation. However, It is not great about numbering the verses; it gives more of a range, and I wanted to let you know exactly what verses I was using. I went on biblegateway.com and it happened to be set for Revised Standard Version (RSV). This translation does not call this section “Wisdom for Beginners,” It calls it “Duties toward God.” I like the first title better so I am glad I started out with the Message Translation!This verse begins with “Accept whatever is brought upon you, and in changes that humble you be patient.” That first part is very broad and very difficult. It is not easy to accept whatever is brought upon you. Especially if what is brought upon you is different than what you thought would be happening. If you prayed for children and yet you have been unable to have them, this is very difficult to accept. If you prayed for a promotion at work and yet you didn’t get it, that is very difficult to accept as well. I can see how it would be wise to accept whatever is brought upon us and yet I wish it gave a bit more instruction. This is one of those times when we need to look at the whole verse and not just part of it. I will explain how and why it is so important to accept whatever is brought upon you in a few minutes.First, let's look at the rest of this first sentence. It tells us to be patient in changes that humble us. This is really not easy. I looked up what “changes that humble us meant,” and this is what I found. "Things that humble you" means things that make you realize you are not as important or special as you thought. For example, you might describe an experience as humbling if you work with talented people and feel a sense of awe or admiration. Here are some other examples of things that can humble you: Seeing people be positive about life when they have little, finding someone's heroism humbling, being rejected from jobs and realizing you need to start at the bottom, realizing that your charisma doesn't always cut it in a business, realizing that you need to improve your knowledge base. Do you see why I said this can be really hard. Patience is a virtue that most of the world needs to grow in. It is not one of the easier virtues. Well, I am not sure there are any easy virtues, but most of us struggle with patience. Especially in this fast-paced world we live in. We always want to be going somewhere fast.Also, any kind of change is really hard. However, if it is a good change, it is a little easier. For instance, if you are moving to a house you really like or a job you really like. Those are both good changes and so it makes the difficulty of moving easier because you know you will be happier in the long run. However, changes that humble us aren’t always good changes. They may be good for us in the long run, but they certainly don’t feel good at the moment.So, how do we accept whatever comes our way and be patient with the changes that humble us? This is where the next part of the verse comes in. It says, “For gold is tested in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation. Trust in him, and he will help you; make your ways straight, and hope in him.” The first part doesn’t tell us how to do it, but it does tell us why we should do it. “For gold is tested in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation.” We need to accept what comes our way because God is testing us and helping us grow into the person we are supposed to be. When gold is tested in the fire, it is melted down to separate it from any other metals or impurities. How does that relate to us? God might be helping us to separate from other false Gods, idols, or any other things that might be getting in our way of being closer to Him. Humility is a great way to grow closer to the Lord! If we are humble, then we realize that all we have is because of God. We give Him all the glory. However, often, we put other things above God, and we crave all the things of this world instead of craving the Lord and all He has to offer us. Also, when we are not humble, we can think that all we have is because of us. We might think we are successful because of our good fortune. We might think we are the reason for all we have.This is dangerous thinking because if we think we don’t need God, we will stop inviting Him into our lives and into our situations, and that is when things get really hard. The last line of this verse says, “Trust in him, and he will help you; make your ways straight, and hope in him.” That right there is the answer we have been looking for. The first part of

Wisdom For Beginners (Part 2)Sirach 2:1-3 “So, my child, you want to serve God? Then get your life in order, respect others, and prepare your soul for the trial that will surely come. Tell your heart what to think; don’t go to sleep on the job. Bend, your ear; listen to your mind. When times get rough, keep your cool. Take a tip from God. Join hands with Him. Don’t slip-slide. Don’t go it alone. Do the wise thing; make wise choices.”Today, we are going to continue to look at the verse we looked at on Tuesday. We didn’t really have time to look at all of it up close, and it had a lot of good things to say. Wisdom is a great thing, and if we can get some tips on how to grow in it, then it’s worth slowing down and taking the time to examine them. Starting where we left off yesterday, the verse says, “Bend your ear; listen to your mind.” I hear that we need to open our Spiritual ears and listen to what the Lord is telling us. We talked yesterday about telling our hearts what to think. This is because our emotions can sometimes lead us astray. Sometimes, we may not want to do the right thing and yet if we listen to our minds we know we should.The Lord can talk to us in any number of ways. The most prevalent way for me is in my mind. I ask Him a question, and He answers it by putting the thought in my mind. For instance, I may ask him how I should pray for my kids better. Then I sit quietly, and all of a sudden, there will be all these thoughts as to how I can pray for my kids better. You might hear the Lord this way, or you might ask Him a question, and then you might get a strong feeling in your body that you know the answer, but you didn’t hear anything. You might also be led to Scripture after you ask the Lord a question, and you realize that the Scripture is the answer to your question. God is trying to talk with you, your job is just to listen. And sometimes that means listening to your mind.Next, it says when times get rough, keep your cool. This can be much harder than it sounds, depending on how rough things get. One great way to keep your cool when things get rough is to pray for the peace of Christ. You can actually ask the Lord to fill you with the peace of Christ. I have prayed this over many people, and you would be surprised how peaceful they felt. Some of them were in situations where you wouldn’t think peace was even possible.That is what is so amazing about the peace that we get from the Lord. It says in Philippians 4:7, “And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” God’s peace surpasses all understanding. I like how it also says it will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. This is so important. If we can keep our hearts and minds focused on Jesus, we are all set. It’s when we take our focus off of Jesus and we start to think more about how big our problem is. We spend our time thinking about all the ways things can go wrong instead of thinking about all the things that could be right.We think about the fact that we can’t see a way out instead of focusing on the fact that God doesn’t need us to see the way out or that fact that God doesn’t need there to be a way out. He is a way maker. He can make a way even if there is no way out. He can blast a hole right through your problems. We have a God that can do impossible things. Nothing is too big for Him. Just yesterday, during witness Wednesday, we learned about how God gave a brand new heart to someone. His heart was damaged, and he needed to have stents put in or maybe even a bypass, they weren’t sure. Yet, when they went in to take a closer look, he had a brand new heart. God is bigger than you think He is, and He is definitely bigger than your problems. We can remain cool when things get rough if we keep our eyes fixed on the Lord.Next, it says, “Take a tip from God. Join hands with Him. Don’t slip-slide. Don’t go it alone.” This is super important. I know I say this all the time, and you may be sick of hearing it, but it is true, and I don’t think we all understand the necessity of inviting the Lord in. If you want to go at this life alone, the Lord will let you. He believes in free will, so He doesn’t enter situations that He is not wanted or invited into. I love how this verse says to take a tip from God. How do we take a tip from God? I can think of two ways. First, stop and listen to Him like I talked about earlier. The second way would be to read scripture and apply it to your life. Scripture is God’s love letter to you. He is speaking to us through His Scripture. It is a living Word that answers our questions and can speak to us if we listen to it. I know many people who find their answers to life’s questions in the Bible.I also love how the verse says to join hands with Him. I love that visual. I envision myself as a little girl, and I grab hold of Jesus’s hand, and we are just walking through a green field. This line shows us that God is not a distant God. He i

Today’s witness was found online. Someone close to me is having some issues with his heart and so I wanted to find a healing story that had to do with the heart. When we can hear that others have been healed of a similar thing that we are praying for then our faith is built up that we or our loved ones will be healed too. Today I am sharing the story of David and what happened when he went to the doctor for his heart.I pray this story gives you hope that God will answer your prayers too! Here is his story in his own words.I don’t know if you have personally experienced a miraculous healing, but I have. I was fifty-six years old, and every Friday afternoon that autumn, I worked out with a trainer. Like many personal trainers, Vileka Fisher started each session by checking my weight and blood pressure. Some variations are normal. My blood pressure, however, climbed for seven weeks straight, topping out at 203/143. At that point, she fired me. Literally.“I’m not going to have you die on me,” Vileka told me. “You have to go to your doctor immediately.” In turn, Dr. Guesly Dessieux quickly ordered two sets of tests. The next day, they took extensive, continuous images of my heart at rest. The following day, they took extensive, continuous images of my heart after a lengthy and very fast-paced run on an industrial-sized treadmill.The Dreaded Post-Exam Phone CallOn Friday, October 23, 2015, I received the proverbial day-after phone call. On Tuesday, October 27, I met with my “new best friend,” interventional cardiologist Dr. Barath Krishnamurthy, to find out how extensively my heart was damaged and what next steps were ahead for both of us. The damage to the front middle and front lower-right areas of my heart, he said, was significantly worse than expected for a man my age.Dr. Krishnamurthy scheduled me to report to Salem Hospital as soon as possible. He said he would start with an angiogram. If the damage wasn’t too severe, he planned to insert stents. Then again, if the damage was severe, he planned to perform double bypass surgery.“When would you do that bypass surgery?” I asked, feeling more anxious and nervous than I’d felt in a long time.“Right then and there,” he replied. “There’s no time to waste. You could have a heart attack any day.”That last comment wasn’t reassuring, but he had my attention!Afterward, I remembered how good it is that we can thank God daily for His sovereignty (greatness), providence (goodness and guidance), holiness (glory), love (graciousness), and mystery (“God alone knows”).Most of the time during those next few days, I was prayerful and at peace. Then again, I couldn’t forget Dr. Krishnamurthy’s comments that recovery from an angiogram and stents would take a few days. Recovery from double bypass surgery, though, could take six to eight weeks, maybe longer.By phone, Facebook, and e-mail, my wife (Renée) and I asked those close to us to pray for a routine, boring, and ultimately successful angiogram.A couple of hours after checking into Salem Hospital on November 5, 2015, I was wheeled into surgery. According to plan, I lost consciousness shortly after meeting the five members of my cardiologist’s team.Miraculous News Came after SurgeryWhen I woke up in recovery, my cardiologist walked in looking stunned. “This never happens,” he said. “You heart looks great. I couldn’t find any damage anywhere. Not even plaque.” It rarely happens, he explained, that two separate days of radioactive imaging would clearly, and yet incorrectly, show substantive damage in two separate areas of the heart.Bottom line: no damage, no stents, and no double bypass surgery.Renée was quick to call it a miracle. When I confided that I wasn’t ready to use that word, she asked why. “Well, I had just woken up in recovery. What if I misunderstood what Dr. Krishnamurthy told me?”On November 25, I returned to Salem Cardiovascular to meet with my cardiologist. He had been called away for an emergency heart procedure and asked one of his associates, Masen Martin, to meet with me. I explained the purpose of my visit. Then I told Masen (as she prefers to be called) that when Dr. Krishnamurthy talked with me in recovery, he looked pretty much stunned.“Stunned?” she exclaimed. “You were the surprise of the year!”She paused and then went on. “Frankly, it left all of us here pretty rattled. The imaging is proof positive that you needed either stents or double bypass surgery. But the angiogram imaging a few days later is proof positive that your heart has absolutely no damage anywhere. Not even a trace of plaque anywhere in or around your heart.” I had the heart of a teenager again. Medically and scientifically, that’s not supposed to be possible.In other words, Renée was right. It truly was a miracle. Then again, it was a miracle that caught me by surprise. Yes, hundreds prayed, but not for this outcome.Louise the Prayer Warrior and Her God-Sized PrayersThat next Sunday, November 29, a super quiet, very introverted, yet lo

Wisdom For BeginnersSirach 2:1-3 “So, my child, you want to serve God? Then get your life in order, respect others, and prepare your soul for the trial that will surely come. Tell your heart what to think; don’t go to sleep on the job. Bend, your ear; listen to your mind. When times get rough, keep your cool. Take a tip from God. Join hands with Him. Don’t slip-slide. Don’t go it alone. Do the wise thing; make wise choices."The title of this episode is the title of the section where this verse is found in the Message Translation of the Catholic Bible. It immediately resonated with my heart. I definitely feel like I am a beginner when it comes to wisdom. I thought this verse laid things out so easily and helped us to see what sort of things we can do if we want to serve God. I felt as though they are good reminders as to what we should be doing everyday anyway.Let’s look at them individually. First, it says that if we want to serve God, we need to get our lives in order, respect others, and prepare our souls for the trials that will surely come. When it says, “get our lives in order,” to me, that means we need to know what we are doing. We need to be living intentionally and not just going about our day haphazardly with no plan and no idea of how the day will unfold. If we say yes to the Lord He will use us and when He does it will take time to do what He is calling us to do. If we are not living intentionally it might be hard to find the time to do all He is calling us to do.I also think it means that we should get our lives in order before we can go out and make a difference in other people’s lives. If we are struggling to take care of our house, our family, and our friends, then it might not be the right time to go out and try and take care of other people. Sir Thomas Browne said, “Charity begins at home.” Mother Theresa says, “Love begins at home.” It’s not ok to be unkind to your family and then go to church on Sunday and treat everyone else as sweet as pie. If we want to serve God first, we must get our own lives in order. Then the Lord will send us out to help others.Next, it said, respect others. It makes me sad that we would still need to be saying this. There is such a culture of disrespect right now, and it makes me so sad. When I listen to not only my own kids but the kids at the various schools where I sub, or I read comments on social media from other adults, I am in shock at the lack of respect. If we want to serve the Lord, we need to respect all of His children, not just the ones who look like we do, believe as we do, and love as we do. God made all people, and we must respect all people, whether we agree with them or not. We are called to love our neighbors, and that begins with respect.This next one was something I was a bit worried about when I was going through the Life in the Spirit seminar for the first time. The people who had been in the Charismatic Renewal told us to be careful what we asked for because if we asked for the Holy Spirit to use us, He would, and we might use it in some ways we didn’t expect. They said sometimes it is a wild ride when the Holy Spirit is leading. The verse above says, “Prepare your soul for the trial that will surely come.” This would also frighten me. I didn’t want to endanger myself or my family by working for the Lord. Although the enemy will indeed attack you when you are working for the Lord, you also have the Lord protecting you.You have the Lord building you up and giving you the strength to make it through whatever the enemy is throwing at you. Sometimes, He will allow the enemy to come at you, but He will never let you face it alone. He is always right there with you, helping you withstand it. Give you what you need. It says in 1 John 4:4, “Little children, you are from God, and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” Yes, the enemy may come after you or your family but the Lord won’t let Him destroy them.I feel the enemy has come after my family because He knew I wouldn’t believe His lies. He knew I had the armor of God on, and when we know who we are in the Lord’s eyes, the enemy can't hurt us. However, I do feel he has attacked my family with drug addiction, depression, anxiety, anger, and so much more. However, I know that the enemy will not win. My children will be saved, my family and my marriage will be saved. My marriage was already saved. We were so close to splitting, and the Lord came in and gave us renewed minds and hearts for one another. God can do this for you too!We don’t have to be afraid of what the enemy might do to us or our family if we are serving the Lord, but we do have to prepare for it. We do need to be on the lookout for it so that when we see something happening to us or those around us, we can call upon the Lord to come and protect us and give us the strength to get through all that is happening.Next, it says, “Tell your heart what to think.” I love this because ou

All The Guilt And Power Of Sin Has Been Cut AwayColossians 2:11 “Through our union with him we have experienced circumcision of heart. All of the guilt and power of sin has been cut away and is now extinct because of what Christ, the anointed one, has accomplished for us.”I really like this verse and thought it was a great reminder for a Monday morning! Who wouldn’t want to start their week off with the reminder that all of the guilt and power of sin has been cut away and is now extinct because of what Christ, the anointed one, has accomplished for us? That is amazing. Christ is so good. He came down and died a horrible death just so that we could be free from sin and shame.What keeps coming to my mind is, then, why do we all have so much sin and shame in our lives? This verse doesn’t say that there will no longer be any sin in this world. We are human, we are flawed, and we will continue to sin. However, this verse says that the guilt and power of sin have been cut away. The verse starts by saying that through our union with him, we have experienced circumcision of the heart. This means that our hearts have been changed. They are no longer like they once were. Before Jesus died on the cross, we had shame and guilt for our sins. Before He died on the cross, we were separated from the Lord because of our sins. After He died on the cross, we were reunited with the Lord.The verse goes on to say that all the guilt and power of sin has been cut away and is now extinct because of what Christ did for us. You may be looking at your own heart and seeing that you still have some guilt from past sins and may be wondering why. Why do I still have guilt when Jesus cut it away with His sacrifice? Why do I feel guilt and shame over my sins when Jesus took that guilt and shame to the cross and then to the grave with Him? The reason for this is that we need to let go of it. We need to release this guilt and believe that Jesus truly died for our sins and that His death was enough to cover our sins.God gave us free will. He did not want to create creatures that had to love Him. If we didn’t have a choice whether or not to love Him, then it wouldn’t truly be love. He wanted us to choose freely to love Him. Some of us think that is where free will stops. We think we have the choice to love God or not, and he governs all of our behavior outside of that. This is not the case. God takes our free will seriously. This means He does not come into a situation that He is not invited into. If you want to handle everything yourself, He will let you. Not because He likes to see you suffer because He doesn’t. I am sure it breaks His heart when He has to watch us suffer when He knows it would be so easy for Him to help us. The reason He lets us do things on our own is because He doesn’t want to overstep. He doesn’t want to enter a situation He hasn’t been invited into.Giving us free will and watching how we use it must be so hard for the Lord. I think back to when my kids were little, and they were in that stage where they wanted to do everything on their own. Watching them is painful sometimes because you know it would be so much easier to do it for them, and yet you know they want to do it by themselves. Especially when they are learning how to walk. You know they are going to fall down several times before they get the hang of it, and yet you let them because you know it is the only way they will learn to walk on their own. However, we are usually right there by their side so if they do reach out their hand we are there to grab it and help them.This is similar to the Lord. He watches us, walks right next to us, and yet He waits patiently for us to reach out our hands and ask for help. I think this must be especially hard for Him when it comes to our guilt and shame over sin. I can imagine it breaks His heart when we allow sin to have power over us. God sent His only son to earth to die a painful death for us, and yet instead of embracing this freedom, we act as though His sacrifice wasn’t for us. We don’t believe the Lord when He says that sin has no power over us anymore.What it really should say is that sin has no power over you anymore unless you let it. If you let guilt and shame live in your heart, then it will gain power over you. The enemy is going to try to get us to believe the lie that we should feel guilt and shame for our sins. He is going to try to get us to believe that we are unredeemable and that our sins are too bad. The enemy won’t deny that Christ died on the cross for the sins of humans, but He will try to convince us that our sins are too bad. Yes, He died for some people’s sins, but not for ours. He tries to convince us that we can never be forgiven. And unfortunately, we often buy into these lies.I learned a saying in Encounter that I love because it is so powerful and it is so true. When you believe the lie, you empower the liar. When you believe the lies of the enemy, you give Him power over your life. When you b

Tapestry of LoveColossians 2:2-4 “ I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God’s great mystery. All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in that mystery and nowhere else. And we’ve been shown the mystery! I’m telling you this because I don’t want anyone leading you off on some wild-goose chase, after other so-called mysteries, or “the Secret.”I chose this verse for today because it is sort of a continuation of yesterday’s verse. Yesterday, we talked about the secret surprise and how that secret was Jesus living within us. Today, we are talking about Jesus again. I also chose this verse because I loved the language used in it. I was going back and forth between this translation, which is the message translation, and the passion translation like I used yesterday. I think, overall, this translation explains this in a way that is easier to understand. The first sentence is the one I loved the most. Here is what is said in the passion translation, “I am contending for you that your hearts will be wrapped in the comfort of heaven and woven together into love’s fabric.” Isn’t that a beautiful image? Our hearts are wrapped up in the comfort of heaven. That is wonderful.The message translation says, "I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God.” I loved this one, too, as picturing a tapestry of love is great imagery. It was also similar to the passion translation, which said, “woven together into love’s fabric.” So, besides nice language and fancy imagery, what does this all mean? It begins by saying that we are in touch with everything there is to know about God. So, no big deal, right? I don’t think he means that we need to actually know everything there is to know about God, as that is impossible. None of us could possibly know everything there is to know about God.The next line clarifies this a bit. It says, “Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God’s great mystery.” Do you know who God is? Have you spent time in the scriptures, have you paid attention at church when they are reading the sacred Word of God? When you know who God is, you can be confident and at rest with the knowledge you have. You are confident because you know the truth. You can be confident because your eyes are focused on Jesus Christ. God has revealed this mystery to you and you are confident in this knowledge.This verse confirms that God’s great mystery is Jesus. Just like we heard yesterday. The next line says, “All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in that mystery and nowhere else.” This is an important one for us to hear and remember. All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in Jesus and nowhere else. This is important because we tend to look everywhere else. How many times have we looked to the world for wisdom and knowledge? How many times have we read books that have nothing to do with Jesus in search of wisdom and knowledge?I have found in my own life that I go to the Lord if I need prayers for something. If I need a miracle to happen, a mountain to be moved, someone I love to be healed, or things to go smoothly, I turn to the Lord and pray for His help. However, when I need wisdom and knowledge, I turn to books, and my go-to is not usually scripture. I will search online for books that have to do with the topic I’m struggling with. I ask friends or family what they think I should do. I didn’t know that I could go to the Lord when I needed knowledge or wisdom. That may seem silly to you, and yet I don’t think I am the only one that didn’t know this.It wasn’t until I went to the Encounter School of Ministry that I realized that if you needed wisdom and knowledge, you could go and sit with the Lord, and He would give it to you. What really cemented this in my mind was when I started to examine some of my favorite Saints. Saint Catherine of Sienna is a doctor of the church, and yet she did not have any formal education. She was one of the most brilliant theological minds of her day, and through her personal influence, thousands of people returned to the church. She did not spend time studying theology. She didn't spend time online researching all she could about the Lord and about Jesus. She went right to the source. She spent time with Jesus himself in her prayer time. She spent a long time in her room, just her and the Lord. St Thérèse of Lisieux was unable to attend a university or engage in systematic study. She died young; nevertheless, from this day forward, she will be honored as a doctor of the Church, an outstanding recognition that raises her in the esteem of the entire Christian community far beyond any academic title. She loved Jesus; she spent time in prayer with Him. She went to the Lord to gain all the wisdom and knowledge she needed. She relied on Jesus for eve

A Secret Surprise!Colossians 1:26-27 “There is a divine mystery – a secret surprise that has been concealed from the world for generations, but now it's being revealed, unfolded and manifested for every holy believer to experience. Living within you is the Christ who floods you with the expectation of glory! This mystery of Christ, embedded within us, becomes a heavenly treasure chest of hope filled with the riches of glory for his people, and God wants everyone to know it!”Have I mentioned lately how much I love the passion translation? It brings out the passion in the Scriptures. I love how this begins by saying there is a divine mystery- a secret surprise that has been concealed from the world for generations, but now is being revealed.” Doesn’t that make you sit forward a bit more in your seat so you can pay better attention? Doesn’t it make you wonder what this secret surprise is and why haven’t you heard about it before? I can’t imagine it is just me that feels this way. Who doesn’t like a surprise? Who doesn’t like to feel like they know something that others don’t know? I love to feel like I am on the inside. Like I am “in the know” as some would say.I remember this is how I feel sometimes when I am sitting in Church and I hear a reading that I learned about in a Bible study. I love it when I learn more about Scripture in Bible study. I love when the person leading the Bible study tells us what the words were in their native language like the Hebrew word for peace is Shalom. Or when they explain that even though the word in the Bible has this meaning to us, back when the Bible was written it really meant this other thing. When I am sitting in Church and I hear a scripture verse that I learned more about in a Bible study I instantly want to share what I know with all those around me. I want to tell them all the extra info I learned. I feel like I have a secret and I want to share it with everyone else. I don’t want to keep it to myself. Have you ever felt this way, or is it just me?This is probably why I loved this first line so much. It is setting us up with excitement that we are going to learn something that has been concealed from the world for generations. Not just from a few people but from the world. Not just for a little while, but for generations! We get to know the secret. Aren’t you excited? I like how is says, “but now it's being revealed, unfolded, and manifested for every holy believer to experience.” I like this because it shows the gentleness of God. He is not just dumping this big secret on us. He is slowly revealing it. He is allow it to unfold in our lives and He is manifesting it for each one of us to experience.What is this secret surprise? “Living within you is the Christ who floods you with the expectation of glory!” Jesus Christ is living within you. Did you know this? We are lucky because we have the Scriptures to read about. We get to learn all about Jesus and what he did while He was here on earth, what He did for us, and who He sent to us after He left. However, what about the early church? They had to learn about Jesus slowly. They had to have the stories and testimonies told to them over time. I am sure it took time for the news of Jesus to spread. I am sure it took time for the apostles to spread the Gospel to all the corners of the earth.I feel like the Holy Spirit is telling me that even though we have the Bible, even though we have heard about Jesus, and we know who He is and what He has done, this secret is still being revealed to each one of us slowly and more fully over time. God is revealing Christ within us individually to each one of us. He is allowing this discovery to unfold and manifest it in each of our lives in a different way and on a different timeline. Even for those in the Bible, each one had their own experience. Peter was learning more and more about Christ over the three years He was walking with Him. It took Him time and there was some back and forth with His belief. One minute He understood what Christ was saying and the next minute He wasn’t sure. However, with Paul, He knew immediately after his blindness was cured who Jesus was and that He wanted to follow Him.Every one of our experiences will be different. We are all on a different journey and we will all discover Jesus and the truth that He lives inside of us. In God’s timing, this secret and what it means for us and for our lives will be revealed to us and manifested in our lives. I was confused about the meaning when it says, “The Christ who floods you with the expectation of Glory,” I had no idea what this meant. I had the inclination to skip it and move on. Every time I have that feeling I have learned to stop and look it up as I think we all really want to understand all of scripture. I think we want to really understand what it means, not just kinda get it. Here is what I found when I looked it up. A believer can be confident of eternity with Christ in heaven when he or she knows that C

Today’s witness is from my friend Bruce. Bruce reached out to me randomly back in November. He found my podcast and wanted to send in his testimony for witness wednesday. His testimony was about how he went to a healing service and regained his sight and then lost it again when he woke up. I offered to pray with Him, and he agreed. We have prayed together three times now. Bruce has not regained his sight, but something amazing happened each time we prayed together. You can find the testimony from the last two times we prayed together on the Witness Wednesday playlist on YouTube. You can also find them on whatever podcast app you are listening to right now. Today’s witness is about when Bruce and his lovely wife Alice came from Canada to visit Gloucester, MA, and my friend and I got to pray with them in person instead of over the phone. It was a great time, and I am so grateful the Lord brought Bruce, Alice, and me together. I know you will enjoy this witness as much as I enjoyed it. God is working in such miraculous ways!Dear Catherine,It is two months from today that we met with you and Nancy in Rockport. In the meantime, you have been to Scotland and back and I have had a new experience which I will tell you about. You may use it in your Witness Wednesday if you would like to. On July 23rd, my wife Alice and I had the pleasure of meeting with Catherine and her friend Nancy for lunch. This vacation had been planned well in advance before we met Catherine. It turned out that Nancy's home was just down the road from where we were staying. Sitting outside by the ocean, the four of us chatted and also prayed together for healing. There was no major change in my eyesight at that time, but I realized that the floaters and shifting debris that I normally saw, were gone. It felt like I had more life in my eyes - just a feeling. This visit was a real blessing and encouragement for us before heading for home a couple of days later.For some time I had been without any sight in my left eye and was able to see light and shadows in my right eye. After this recent change my right eye went completely dark but the movement of floaters was gone. I couldn't tell the difference between day or night. I couldn't see if there were any lights on in the house. Things were the same whether my eyes were open or shut. I had to make an adjustment to this. I found the darkness heavy and depressing. I also felt spiritually let down and more isolated. I heard someone talking about God's light of the world and I thought, we often ask the Lord to shine His face upon us in the Benediction. It was a Monday in August and I told the Lord how I felt. I wanted to somehow have more communication with Him. I didn't want to be in the dark anymore, and would He please shine His light upon me. The next day, Tuesday, I listened to Catherine's podcast which was about Jesus the Light of the world. This felt like my prayer was going somewhere and I became vigilant. That night I went to bed about 1:00 a.m. I was laying on my back in the dark. A small white light appeared in my head space. It seemed to sparkle and it began moving. It became brighter and larger and closer, shining with the brightness of lightning. I felt the light overtake me and I put my face in the pillow. The light was still there and I realized it was within me. It was beautiful and exciting. I began thanking and praising the Lord for this joyful experience. This light would move and pulse brighter then lower going on for an hour and a half until I fell asleep. I wanted to wake Alice but I didn't want to interrupt her sleep or the light. When I awoke in the morning, the light was gone. I figured this was a one time experience. Later that morning, I began telling Alice about it. I stopped and said, It's happening again right now. There was an arch of brilliant white light before me. Beautiful as ever. It stayed with me for a couple of hours, coming and going into the night. This continued daily much to my joy. I noticed whenever I sat at the table it would appear. Whenever I listen to my audio Bible or even thought about the Lord or spiritual matters, it would appear. I found myself talking with the Lord in this light. If I was praying it would appear. It was always with me when I went to sleep. I soon realized I could call on it by asking it to appear. I was quite amazed by the way this all happened, by the communication which took place , and the overwhelming feeling of God's love. There was nothing to do but simply enjoy the moment with the Lord and His light. As I write this, the Lord still shines his light upon me, every day and every night. This has been an unexpected and thrilling blessing for me, far better than I hoped for. I can't help but feel this is leading me somewhere good. My hope and faith has never been more confident than it is now. It is so easy for me to trust the Lord to love me and walk me where He wants to take me. He really is my guiding light. I have in the past

Still Waters Psalm 23 (Part 3)Psalm 23 "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.”Today I will talk about the last part of this Psalm. There is a lot to like about this ending. First. It starts by saying that God will prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. I don’t have to be worried about my enemies as God has got me. He is my shield and my refuge. Now he is saying we will prepare a feast for me. When someone is preparing a meal for us, they are not usually stressed out about it. They don’t worry about all the things going on around them. Picture this, there is chaos all around you, and yet in front of you is this beautifully set up dining room table. You have a seat and God is bringing you a feast one course at a time. He is not concerned with your enemies because He knows they can’t touch you. You are not concerned either because you feel so at home and taken care of. Isn’t that a beautifully relaxing image? Next, the verse says that God honors us by anointing our heads with oil. Did you know that you have an anointing on your life? We all do. Did you know through baptism you were anointed to be priest, prophet, and king? It’s true, just as Christ was all three of these, you are also anointed to be these three things to your community. What does that mean for us? Let’s start with the priest. Drawing on the priesthood of the Old Testament, a priest is one who offers sacrifices (see Genesis 14:18; Exodus 29:38- 42; Leviticus 23:6,8). Some sacrifices are personal, and some are on behalf of others. These sacrifices will look different for each one of us depending on our circumstances. However, sacrifice to some degree should be a part of our everyday life. I have tried to embrace this in different ways over the years. At times I did a bread and water fast one day a week. Other times I would fast from one thing for a whole month. I would switch it up each month, but there will always be something I am fasting from. I believe that this helps me to appreciate things more and it will also show me that I am not a slave to that thing. For instance, if I feel like I just can’t stop eating chocolate, then I will fast from that for a month. By the end of the year, I will have shown God and myself that I do not need these things. I will have also made a small sacrifice each month for 12 months.Next, we have prophet. A prophet is a spokesperson for God or one who speaks on God’s behalf (see Exodus 4:30; Deuteronomy 18:18; Isaiah 42:19). In the Old and New Testaments, prophets called people to a different way of life. Can we be a spokesperson for God by how we live our lives? Can we live in a way that when people see us they think to themselves, “I want what they have?” Can we call others to a different way of life, not necessarily with our words, but with our love? Can we love others as Jesus did? Can we speak love and light into the world, into people’s lives? Can we be prophets?Lastly, we are anointed as kings. What are kings called to do? Usually rule over others. We are called to rule over ourselves first and foremost. We are all responsible for making sure we are living our lives according to God’s laws. Most kings are called to rule over others, however, as Christians, we are called to servant leadership. A servant leader leads by serving others. In other words, servant leaders place the interests and needs of their followers ahead of their own self-interests and needs. Generally, they value the development of their followers, building their communities, acting authentically, and sharing power.Now that we know what each one of these means, hopefully, we can apply this to our everyday life. God has anointed us in our everyday tasks too. For instance, I was anointed to be a mother and a wife. That was where God called me and that is what He set me apart to do. Maybe you are anointed to be a doctor, a lawyer, a pharmacy tech, a garbage collector, a grandmother, a teacher, whatever it is, God has anointed you to do it. Your baptismal anointing is not meant to replace any of those other calls on your life. You are anointed to be a priest, prophet, and king in the life you are already living. Think about your day-to-day life, how can you incorporate sacrifice into your days? How can you be more of a prophet spreading the Lord’s Word in your daily lives? How can you be more of a servant leader right now, right where you are?The verse then goes on to say my cup overflows with blessings. This is also great imag

Still Waters Psalm 23 (Part 2)Psalm 23 "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.”I only really talked about the first few lines of this Psalm in my last episode and there are some other powerful parts to this Psalm. I want to make sure I go through the whole thing so when you are using it against your anxiety you can understand all the various aspects of it. Today I want to look at the very next line. “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”I was attending a conference once, and the speaker mentioned this verse. It was not a spiritual conference, so when I heard it, I figured it was a sign that I should talk about it. The verse says though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. This is hard. It seems like there is so much to fear these days. There is fear surrounding these elections. There is fear surrounding the future of our country. There is fear surrounding so many things.When we read this scripture we wonder how it is possible to fear no evil. How is it possible to fear no evil when you are surrounded by death, or the possibility of death? If you read on it says “for thou are with me; they rod and thy staff they comfort me.” God is with us, we all know this, we repeat this and tell others this, but do we really believe this? Do you believe that God is right there with you when you are in the valleys? We all know how all-powerful God is, so if we believe that He is there with us, it makes sense that we wouldn’t be afraid. How could we be afraid when He is there? He is the Almighty One. So, why do we have so much fear? Are we afraid that He won’t help us? Are we afraid He won’t show up? Are we afraid to die? What is it that we have been so afraid of? Maybe you find yourself worried about a lot of things. Maybe you worry every time there is a storm coming. Maybe you worry about your finances. Maybe you worry about your children, parents, siblings, or spouse. Worry may be a part of your everyday life. I am hoping to change that. It probably won’t change overnight, and it may not be easy, but it is possible. The bible mentions “fear not” 365 times. This is definitely something that God wants us to get. I will be honest, I didn’t get the last part of this verse. “Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” I looked up the meaning of this because I wondered if there was something that I was missing. I am glad I did because there is a great article called “Understanding Psalm 23: What Does the Staff and Rod Actually Mean?(Click Here for article) I highly suggest it as it is good. I will not retell the article, I will just touch upon the few descriptions of the rod and the staff. First, the author says that the staff symbolizes rest, as shepherds used to lean on their staff for rest. Next, the staff can symbolize rescue because shepherds used to use their staff to rescue sheep from the thick brush. Third, the staff can symbolize a guide as the shepherd used it to guide sheep across open fields. This all seems to make a lot of sense to me. It seems like we are much happier and less afraid when we are able to just rest in the Lord. To just sit with Him and turn over all of our worries and fears to Him. Also, God rescues us from difficult situations when we need Him. He doesn’t abandon us. He is always there for us in good times and in bad. Lastly, He is definitely our Guide. How many times have we needed God to guide us through the rough parts of our lives? We need Him as a guide for the easy parts as well.The article goes on to say that Rod is Our Protection. When shepherds were herding sheep they used their rods to defend against anything that wanted to attack the sheep. This is what God does for us. He protects us from our enemies. The Rod is also a symbol of Love. The shepherds used to use their rods to count the sheep. You might be wondering how this is a symbol of Love. This is an act of love because the shepherd is making sure that all of his sheep are present and accounted for. God is doing the same thing for us. He does not want a single one of His sheep to get lost. He loves us too much. Now that I understand what the words rod and staff mean in the context of this verse and in the time that it was written, I feel as though I understand the verse as a whole better now. I can’t believe how much the Lord is saying to us with just a short sentence or two. I am also in awe sometimes thinking abou

Still Waters (Psalm 23)Psalm 23 "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.”I've been hearing this song called Still Waters (Psalm 23) by Leanna Crawford on KLOVE Radio a lot these past few days. Before leaving for Prayer Group I saw that the leader was using the song Psalm 23, although it was a different version of it, as one of the songs for the meeting. Yesterday afternoon I got this deep feeling that that's what I was supposed to talk to you about it because there's a lot of anxiety and worry going around these days. And I just talked to someone who lost her husband and she said she's paranoid these days. She's worried about all the financial aspects of your husband dying. She's worried about her future, she is worried about a lot of things.And I know she's not the only one. I know that we all have fear and worry over different kinds of things in our lives. I was really struck by the beginning part of the Still Waters song when it said, “Great Aunt Maurine said at a hundred and three, write scripture on your heart for when you need it.And it also really struck me when she said, “Cause anxiety hates Psalm 23. So just say it to yourself 'til you believe it.” And I just thought, isn't God so good? Isn't it amazing how he gives us exactly what we need found right there in the scriptures? I have to be honest, I don't know a lot about the Psalms. I know Robert from our morning prayer group always asks people what their favorite Psalm is because he's memorized a bunch of them. And I think what a beautiful thing.And also, I have no idea what my favorite Psalm is. And also, I didn't know that some of the Psalms have a specific purpose. I knew there were Psalms of praise and Psalms of lamentation. But I didn't know that there were Psalms that anxiety hated. And I didn't know that there were Psalms of protection like Psalm 91. And so I wanted to talk a little bit about Psalm 23 today, because I think it's one that we've heard often. And yet, I don't know if we really know how powerful it is. I know I didn't know how powerful it was. And honestly, I didn't even really understand what it meant.I never found it super powerful when I would read it, or even when I would hear it. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.” I didn't know what that meant. And I don't know if I still know completely what it means. But what the Lord pointed out to me when I was listening to the song today was he leads me to still waters. Even in the storm, there's still waters. Even in the valleys, when you're at your lowest, he can lead you through that valley right next to still waters. To me, this verse is telling us that no matter what we're going through, if we let the Lord lead us, he'll lead us by still waters. He won't lead us into the eye of the storm.He won't lead us by chaos and confusion. If our eyes are fixed on him, and if we follow his path through the storm, there will be still waters that we can follow. And don't we all need some still waters in the craziness of the storm? Also, what stuck out to me today was when it said, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.I think we all want for things. I've heard from people in my prayer group, and from my parents, as we get older, we want for less. But I think there are all things we want, even if those things are peace, health, safe passage, or maybe it is material things. Whatever it is, we all want for things.And yet this is saying, the Lord is our shepherd, we shall not want. We can rely on him to give us all that we need, and all that we want. The Lord knows the desires of our hearts. He knows what it is we want. And he not only cares about the things that we need, but he cares about the things that we want too. He cares about the little requests, just as much as he cares about the big requests.I know sometimes we don't want to feel greedy, and we don't want to ask God for the little things, because we love him, and we know that he's already given us so much. So why should we ask for more? And yet the Lord tells us in our prayer group, in the words of prophecy, over and over again, “I have so much more for you, but you're not asking.” So ask the Lord, we shall not want, he will give us what it is we need, he will give us what it is we want.I feel like the Lord is saying there is no “too much.” Just ask. It can't hurt to ask. And that he wants to give us so much more. And we're not aski

Today, I have a special guest giving the devotional. My friend Catherine was asked to give the devotional to our mentoring group, and I loved her message, and I wanted to share it with all of you. I am sure you will love it to. It was given to a group of women, so she may say girls in the devotional, however, it is for everyone listening. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com CLICK HERE TO DONATE CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails CLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Today’s witnesses are from Matthew West’s website called popwe.org. If you don’t know who Matthew West is, he is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller. This website is for the non-profit that he has with his father, a pastor. Matthew and his father encourage people to share their stories. They have various categories of stories. Today, I chose two testimonies from the Addictions & Deliverance Category. Our family has been touched by addiction and I don’t think we are the only ones. One of my sons is desperately trying to quick vaping nicotine, which he was addicted to before he was really old enough to understand how addicting it is. I think these stories will offer some hope and encouragement. Often, we can hear our own story in someone else’s story. When we listen to others tell their story, it helps us see that we are not alone. Hearing how God worked in their situation gives us hope that He will work in ours, too! I pray when you hear these testimonies, you get the faith and hope to believe that miracles can happen in your situation also.Adrienne: In 2014, I began praying to God to remove these addictions from me. My life was a mess and all I cared about was my cigarettes and alcohol. God led me to the right resources, and I did manage to quit smoking and drinking (although not at the same time and I experienced some slips.)In 2018, with the help of God and a stop-smoking community, I gave up cigarettes for good. Then on June 23rd, 2020, God helped me once again and both my husband and I stopped drinking. The freedom and joy I feel from having both of these substances out of my life is amazing and like nothing, I’ve ever known. The “buzz” I get now from a life well lived is so much better than any buzz I received from cigarettes or alcohol. I am so incredibly grateful to be free of those chains. If you are struggling with overcoming an addiction, my advice to you is don’t give up on yourself and trust God. You may not break free immediately but with patience, perseverance, and the love and help of our Savior, you can overcome even the toughest addiction.With God, ALL things are possible!Chris: My name is Chris, I’m 32 years old and I’m from Houston, TX. I’m married to my wife, Keyla. We have 2 daughters Kaylee and Madison and a dog, Charlie Boy. As a child, I grew up in a loving home. I’m the youngest of 5 siblings. I grew up with mom and dad at home. We always had a tight bond. The thing is we didn’t know Jesus. Our lifestyle was that of sinners. Alcoholism and drug addiction were creeping around my family. At the age of 7, I was molested by a family member who was on drugs at the time. Years later, he committed suicide. But I forgave him. Mentally and emotionally it messed me up. At the age of 13, I myself started using drugs. I tried cocaine in the 7th grade, then started smoking marijuana. This was the beginning of a drug addiction that would last for a period of 18 years. At the age of 17, I went into a restoration home by the name of Outcry In The Barrio, founded by Pastor Freddy Garcia. By this time I was now using pills. My father was an alcoholic, my older brother, Jr., was selling drugs and was also addicted to drugs as well as my brother, Jerry, and sister, Brenda. My brother, John, was the only one in my family (along with my mother) who didn’t care for drugs or alcohol.So, I walked into this small duplex 1 bedroom house with about 15 guys living there. The leaders and the Pastor of the church told me Jesus would change my life if I would only surrender. As I began my journey of sobriety, every day for the next 6 months was hard and I wanted to leave. But I started to notice something- I noticed my family was coming to church. My brother, Jr., was the first in my family to give his life to Jesus and decided to make a change within himself. He was tired of the lifestyle he was living. Little by little my entire family got saved. By the fifth or sixth month, we were all getting baptized and living for Christ. As I graduated my program at the age of 18, I wish I could tell you that was it- that I have lived a clean sober life. But that would be a lie.The next 13 years were a battle, but it was no one’s fault but mine. After meeting my wife and getting married and having children, I thought that would help. But unfortunately and sadly it didn’t. I was selfish, stuck in my own ways, or addicted. My wife had enough. She moved out and went back to live with her parents, along with my daughters and Charlie Boy. By this time I couldn’t keep a job and I lost my house. I wrecked my car, lost my job, and found myself homeless on the streets and now addicted to crack. I literally lost everything. I was alone, in the streets, at times cold, at times wet because of the heavy rain, I lived like this for 3 long weeks. During the last week, after 6-7 days straight without food or anything to drink, I found myself in a prodigal stage. I cried out to the Lord and said, “Lord!!!!! What have I done? Look at me!!

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

He Gives All The More GraceJames 4:6 “But he gives all the more grace; therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”Continuing on with our grace series, I wanted to share this verse with you. This is a pretty popular saying. I have heard it often. So let’s explore what this verse is telling us. First. God gives us all the more grace. If we are trying to live the way the Lord wants us to live, He will give us the grace to do so. Remember, grace is the power to do the right thing. Grace teaches us the right thing to do and then allows us to do it. So, why does the it mean for God to oppose the proud and give grace to the humble. Sometimes I know what a word means, like I could use it in a sentence and yet I don’t understand exactly what it means.In case this is you too, I want to break this verse down and share with you what I have learned about it. When the verse says God opposes the proud it is talking about those who strive to live by the world’s standards instead of the ones He has given to us. Do we strive to live our life according to the life God has set out before us, or do we strive to live the life the World tells us that we want? The world says that we should care about how much money we make and how much stuff we can accumulate. The world tells us that we should look out for ourselves first and everyone else second. The world tells us family values are a thing of the past. We are being good parents by providing for our family, we don’t have to spend time with them. It tells us that our children don’t want to spend time with us anyway.The world tells us who we are and who we should be. It tells us that we don’t deserve God’s love, we aren’t good enough for his mercy and grace, so why even bother trying to obtain it? Or it tells us that we have to strive and strive in order to earn God’s love. I know those are two contradicting things, but that is because the enemy is smart, and he will tell you whatever he thinks you need to hear. If you are someone who feels you have to earn love and affection, the enemy will tell you that you need to earn God’s love on your own merit. He will tell you that you have to work harder and harder, and yet you will never really feel like you have worked hard enough. If you are someone who feels like you are never good enough, the enemy will convince you that you shouldn’t even bother to try to earn God’s love because it is too far out of your reach. You simply aren’t enough, good enough, worthy enough, whatever it may be.What I have learned about this verse is that the proud are the ones who feel they have to earn God’s love on their own. They do not turn to the Lord and ask for His grace to help them change. They feel they can change independently, and then they will come to the Lord. This is prideful. Thinking we can do anything on our own is pretty prideful. We need the Lord to do all things. Well, we need Him to do all things correctly. We can do things on our own, but they definitely don’t turn out how they could if we invited the Lord into everything we do. Does this sound familiar to you? Have you ever thought you needed to do it all on your own? Have you ever felt like you needed to earn God’s love and acceptance? I am pretty sure we have all gone through times when we felt like this.Hopefully, we have also gone through times of humility. Being humble means that we come to God just as we are. We acknowledge that we are sinful and prideful, and yet we know that because He is all-powerful, He can help us change. We come to the Lord in our weak and broken state with the confidence that His grace can redeem us. God has already redeemed us. He sent His only Son, Jesus, to die on the cross so that we may be redeemed. Humility is accepting this forgiveness and turning to the Lord to help us change.I would like to say that being humble is something you decide to do and then that is the end of it. You decided to be humble so now you are a humble person. Being humble is something that you need to continually decide. You will be faced with many choices as you go throughout the day and you must keep making the choice that will help you grow in humility instead of pride. The enemy is good and he will try to trick you into choosing things that will actually help you grow in pride instead of humility.This is where grace comes in. Remember, grace is the power to do the right thing. Even in the face of evil, grace has the power to help us do the right thing. So, how do we call upon this grace? We just ask for it. We just come to the Lord and let Him know we need His grace. It can be as simple as, “God, I know I need you to come into this day with me and help me make the right choices.” It could be as simple as “Come, Holy Spirit, come.” What you say is nearly as important as it is that you do say something. You must acknowledge your reliance on the Lord. Let God know that you invite Him in and that you need Him and His grace.Without God’s grace, with

Where Sin Increased, Grace Abounded All The MoreRomans 5:20-21 “Law came in, to increase the trespass; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that , as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”Today’s episode is one I wrote over a year and a half ago and yet goes perfect with this series on grace so I will re-read it for you today. When I read this verse this morning I knew it was the one to talk about because one of the speakers mentioned it in their talk last week at the conference and I thought he made a really good point. I will see if I can help you see the beauty in the time we are living in. Let me begin with the first line of this verse because I didn’t understand it. It was one of those lines that I just want to skip over to get to the part I can explain at least a little better. However, my commitment to you is that we will really examine these scriptures and we will gain a better understanding of what they mean. We can not do that if I skip over the ones I don’t understand. So, instead I decided to see what those who do Bible commentary have to say about this verse. The reason I don’t understand it is because it sounds like it is saying God gave us the law so that we might sin more. Do you see why that would be confusing to me? Why would God want us to sin more? Figuring out what scriptures like this is really saying is why I love doing this podcast. A few years ago, if I was reading that on my own, I probably would have just moved on, I don’t know that I would have looked it up to see what it was saying. This is another reason I am grateful for each of you listening to this podcast. You push me to learn and to grow because you are willing to learn and grow with me. Thank you!What I found out about this verse is that ever since Adam and Eve took and ate of the apple, sin came into the world. It is not that people were sinning more, it was that they were noticing their sin more. In this verse, Paul is not saying that God introduced the Law because He wanted to make us sin more, but that He wanted us to be more aware of our sins and the fact that we had a totally sinful nature. We were already sinning, we just didn’t realize what we were doing was a sin. The analogy I read said its like accusing a kid of stealing a cookie before you even tell him what stealing is. If there is no law against taking a cookie then he is not stealing it. However, once there is a law and once he understands it, then any cookies he takes after that is willful disobedience. God was helping us to see all the ways we were not living how we were meant to live. They say the first step to change is acknowledging that you need to change. How could the Israelites be expected to change if they did not know what they were doing was wrong? This was the point to the law, to show them their sins, not to make them sin more.The next part of the verse above says, "but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” This line explains to us that God didn’t just give them the law, but He gave them grace as well. Here is a quote from an article titled, "Pastor: What the grace of God does in us” by Rev. J. Patrick Street. I will place a link for it in the show notes (click here for article). This is what the pastor said about grace:“You see that the grace of God is more than salvation but also everything we need for life and godliness. The definition of grace could be “God's life, power and righteousness given to us by unmerited favor.” It is through grace that God works effective change in our hearts and lives. Grace gives us a new life which is not condemned by God. Through God's grace we are forgiven, transforming our thinking, resulting in the renewal of our mind and heart. Through grace we live the kind of life that God would like every one of His children to experience.” The grace of god is essential for us to live the way God wants us to live. We need God’s grace. One of the speakers at the conference was talking about how the world is crazy right now. He was talking about how the devil is having a hay day with the world and that sin is running rampant. He also said we shouldn’t be afraid because where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. God’s grace is alive and well and is within all of us. We received a word of prophecy almost six months ago in our prayer group and I think it fits well with what we are talking about today. Let me read it to you:"How often I tell you my people to listen. To listen to my word, to not harden your hearts, but to listen to my voice. How often I tell you parables, parables that compare to life, to the life you live. You look around you and you think the world has never been in worse shape than it is now. For you that is true for others that have come before you they felt the same. But the world is in the best shape it has ever been in because I was born into this world and I gave my life for each one of

What Does Grace Even Mean?Titus 2:11-12 “God’s marvelous grace has manifested in person, bringing salvation for everyone. This same grace teaches us how to live each day as we turn our backs on ungodliness and indulgent lifestyles, and it equips us to live self-controlled, upright, godly lives in this present age.”I had someone reach out to me and ask me about God’s grace. I talk about it a lot and so I thought I would take the next few days and look at what Scripture has to say about God’s grace. The verse above is a great place to start. It begins with God’s marvelous grace has manifested in person brining salvation for everyone. Jesus was God’s grace manifested in person. Jesus came to bring salvation to all of us. He died on the cross so that we would be saved. He took all of our sins, all of our shame, all that is not right and brought it to the cross with Him. He healed us from our sinful nature. He saved us from ourselves. He set us free from the hold the enemy had over us ever since sin entered this world.He saved us and set us free and yet it is our job to walk in that freedom. How does one do that? How do we walk in our freedom? The second part of today’s verse addresses that. This same grace that brought us salvation also teaches us how to live each day as we turn our backs on ungodliness and indulgent lifestyles. If Jesus was the grace that set us free then how can that same grace teach us how to live our lives? Jesus is not longer on earth. He went to be with the Father. In John 14:18 Jesus said, “I promise that I will never leave you helpless or abandon you as orphans—I will come back to you!” Then in verse 26 it says, “But when the Father sends the Spirit of Holiness, the One like me who sets you free, he will teach you all things in my name. And he will inspire you to remember every word that I’ve told you.”Jesus was here on earth and yet His time teaching us was not very long. He did a lot of teaching while He was here. He gave a lot of hard teachings that shaped the way we understand God and what God actually wants from us. He also did a lot of signs and wonders while he was here teaching. However, His main purpose for coming was to set us free. His main purpose was to redeem us so we no longer have to be separate from the Father. Once He did that, His job was over and He went to be with the Father. However, you can see in John 14:18 & 26 that He did not leave us alone to our own devices. He asked His Father to send the Holy Spirit to dwell within us.The Holy Spirit was sent to us to help us walk in our freedom. He was sent to us to teach us all the things that we need to know and to inspire us to remember all that Jesus taught us. I don’t know exactly how to define grace. However, I do know that the verse above says, “This same grace teaches us how to live each day as we turn our backs on ungodliness and indulgent lifestyles, and it equips us to live self-controlled, upright, godly lives in this present age.” I wonder if Grace is the Holy Spirit?The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) defines grace as a free and undeserved gift from God that enables people to respond to God’s call to become children of God. The CCC also describes grace as a participation in the life of God. The CCC distinguishes between two types of grace. One is habitual grace: A permanent disposition to act and live in accordance with God’s call. Second is actual grace: God’s intervention, such as when someone is tempted to do something wrong, but God sends actual grace to help them choose what is right.It sounds to me like grace is a power that God gives us to resist what is bad and to do what is right. Who doesn’t need more of that in their life? It also sounds like grace teaches us right from wrong. We don’t need to look to the world for that, as the world often teaches us the opposite of what God teaches us. Isn’t it great to know that we don’t have to remember everything on our own? Isn’t great to know that when we aren’t sure what to do, which is the right thing to do and what is the wrong thing to do then we can rely on the Holy Spirit and God’s grace to show us what to do.I find it comforting to know that I don’t have to do the right thing in my own power. In personal development, you often hear a lot about a person’s willpower. Do they have the willpower to stick to the diet? Do they have enough willpower to keep going to the gym? It’s all about a person’s willpower. I love that it is not all up to me. I know that I am weak and if we are just relying on my power, not much will get done. Yet, we aren’t just relying on our own power. We have the power of the one who raised Jesus from the dead living inside of us. This power was given to us so that we could be taught right from wrong. This power was given to us so we could overcome our challenges, our weaknesses, and our chains.Jesus died on the cross to redeem us. Then He sent the Holy Spirit to be with us to help us walk in that freedom. That means we are no

Today’s witnesses are from Matthew West’s website called popwe.org. If you don’t know who Matthew West is, he is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller. This website is for the non-profit that he has with his father, a pastor. Matthew and his father encourage people to share their stories. They have various categories of stories. Today, I chose three testimonies from the Broken Chapter Category. We all have times in our lives when things don’t go as we thought they would. I think we have all had tragedy strike in one way or another. Some are worse than others but I don’t think anyone has had a tragedy-free life. The witnesses today are no different. They have had some truly terrible things happen and yet they are able to testify to how God was with them through it. Often, we can hear our own story in someone else’s story. When we listen to others tell their story, it helps us see that we are not alone. When we hear how God worked in their situation, it gives us hope that He will work in ours, too! I pray when you hear these testimonies, you get the faith and hope to believe that miracles can happen in your situation also. I pray you know that God is there with you, and if you invite Him into your situation, He can help.Jasmyn: Matthew, I loved getting your letter years ago when I wrote to you! Your music is so awesome! “Me On Your Mind” touches my heart because I was in a near-death experience 2 years ago when I was hit by a car crossing the street with my long white cane since I’m blind and Jesus had me on His mind. I suffered some injuries such as a fractured pelvis, abrasions on my stomach, arms, and legs from where she dragged me on the pavement, a fractured wrist, that were non-life threatening, along with high blood pressure and fatty liver. I had to stay in the hospital for a day to make sure my injuries weren’t life-threatening. I was lying in my hospital bed asking Jesus why did this older lady decide to drive if she didn’t know how to and why me? I had anger towards this older lady for taking away part of my independence, since walking was my only thing I could do because of my visual impairment from glaucoma which means I can’t drive at all. The hospital said I had to be on bed rest and get physical therapy to strengthen my pelvis since it was fractured. I was depressed and angry at this woman for putting me in this situation because I couldn’t go anywhere according to the doctor’s orders . I felt worthless, “Great! Not only can I not drive if I want to get out of the house, now, I can’t walk around independently because I have PTSD that this will happen. Again!”I was even asking Jesus, “why did you rescue me? I am worthless now that I can’t walk around and my family has to drive me everywhere because of this accident. What good am I now that I’m blind and physically impaired now?” But I could feel Jesus telling me, “Jasmyn, there is a reason why you didn’t die from being hit by a car, you have a mission to complete on earth which is helping children who are blind and visually impaired to be everything they’re supposed to be through me. I will use you to do this and your story of your accident to help other people in your shoes to get to know me.” I’m glad that I listened to the voice of my Lord and Savior who rescued me because He wasn’t done with me yet. I have been blessed with a new church where I volunteer with children teaching them about Jesus, I am a volunteer Braille teacher at my blind center here in Pennsylvania, I go to the gym and library to take care of my physical and mental health, and I’m in grad school studying to be a teacher for the visually impaired. Last year, my church let me share my experience with God about my accident. My speech touched a lot of hearts in church and I even had some people that were crying. I have had the opportunity to share my story with my blind center to get donations to make it better. My pastor has told me that my accident is a great opportunity to get more people to Jesus and tell people what He could do for them like He has done for me! I feel like I’m living. I feel like I’m letting Jesus use my story for His glory!Susan: My story is a story of healing and restoration. I accepted Christ at the age of 19 and floated along until I was three days from a divorce. The Lord restored our marriage and we have been married for 35 years. He called my husband to preach and we went to seminary and have been in the ministry since 1998. We have been hurt multiple times by different church members but we have gotten back up.My mother passed away in 2018 and that tilted my world in a way that I never could have imagined. If only I would have known that my world would totally fall off the axis when my 6 month old granddaughter was shot and killed by her own mother who then shot and killed herself. My son was on the phone with his wife when it happened. I did not see the Lord through that time but I know He was there holding my family up. I see Him in every single

He Sees You As Holy, Flawless, and RestoredColossians 1:21-22 “Even though you were once distant from him, living in the shadows of your evil thoughts and actions, he reconnected you back to himself. He released his supernatural peace to you through the sacrifice of his own body as the sin-payment on your behalf so that you would dwell in his presence. And now there is nothing between you and Father God, for he sees you as holy, flawless, and restored."There was no way that I could read a verse like the one above and not share it with you. This is something I think God wants us all to know. We usually assume the opposite. We believe when God looks at us all He sees is our mistakes and our failures. We are sure that when He looks at us He finds us unworthy and not enough. How many times have we thought that? How often have we thought negatively about ourselves and assumed God felt the same way? We all do it. Yet this verse says something very different.I love the word choice in this verse. First, it says, “Even though you were once distant from him, living in the the shadows of your evil thoughts and actions, He reconnected you back to himself.” I love this part because it emphasizes our role in our redemption. It doesn’t say that if we do everything right and fix our relationship with the Lord, He will welcome us back. It says He reconnected you back to himself. God does the hard part. All we need to do is say yes and let Him in.We don’t need to fix ourselves. This is where we go wrong a lot of the time. We want to do it all on our own. We want to fix ourselves up all nice and pretty before we come to the Lord, and what He is telling us is that He already sees us all fixed up and beautiful. The verse says, “He released his supernatural peace to you through the sacrifice of his own body as the sin-payment on your behalf so that you would dwell in his presence.” Due to original sin we were no longer allowed to dwell in the Lord’s presence. Now, because of His sacrifice we are allowed to. His sacrifice made us worthy. Are we going to accept that worthiness, or are we going to continue to tell the Lord that His sacrifice wasn’t enough to make us worthy?The last part of the verse says, “And now there is nothing between you and Father God, for he sees you as holy, flawless, and restored.” This part blows my mind. I know the Lord loves me. I know He thinks I am special. I know this because I take the time to sit and talk with Him. You could know this too if you take the time to listen to all He wants to say to you. However, reading this verse in this translation hit me in a new way.God, the all-powerful, the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords, sees me as holy, flawless, and restored. Can you believe that? I imagine not. I imagine that is not what the enemy wants us to believe. He whispers lies in our ears all the time about how unworthy and not enough we are. He tells us God couldn’t possibly love us or forgive us because what we did is too bad, it’s too much. The devil is a liar. God sacrificed his only son for you! Jesus died on the cross for you! Are you telling me there is something you could have done that is too big for this sacrifice to cover?There is a song called Flawless by Mercy me and I think the lyrics really get across what the Lord is telling us today. Here are the lyrics: There's got to be moreThan going back and forthFrom doing right to doing wrongCause we were taught that's who we areCome on get in line right behind meYou along with everybodyThinking there's worth in what you do This is what we think. We think we need to be good enough to earn God’s love, to earn his mercy and his forgiveness. We think we need to fix ourselves. We need to clean ourselves us and get all pretty before we come to the Lord. This is hard on our own and we do good for a bit and then we mess up again. As the song says, there has to be more than this back and forth. Then the song says:Then like a hero who takes the stage when we'reOn the edge of our seats saying it's too lateWell let me introduce you to amazing graceAmazing grace, this is what we don’t count on. This is what we many not even know a lot about. I am going to be doing a series on grace soon. I will be using scripture verses to explain what grace even is and why we should all know all about it. I love this part of the song because it reminds us that even when we think it is too late, it is never too late for God. No matter how far gone we think we are, we are never too far gone for God. There is no darkness to dark for Him. There is no place to distant for Him. Wherever you are, however far away you think you are listen to the words of the verse above, “he reconnected you back to himself.” Just call out and He will reconnect you back to Himself! The song goes on to say,No matter the bumpsNo matter the bruisesNo matter the scarsStill the truth isThe cross has madeThe cross has made you flawless I know you think I don’t understand. I know you think you have

Dance Like No One Is Watching2 Samuel 6:14-16 “And David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was belted with a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of the horn.”I like this verse because it shows how happy David was that the Arc was coming back home. It says that David danced before the Lord with all of his might; and that David was belted with a linen ephod. I am not sure how much you know about David, so let me give you a quick recap. David is the King. He is usually dressed as a King in splendid garments. However, in order to bring the Arc of the Covenant back into Jerusalem David had set aside his royal robes and was “wearing a linen ephod”—a clear indication that he was not naked. The ephod David wore was a garment usually reserved for priests and those ministering before the Lord. As David led the procession of the ark into the city, he humbly laid aside his royal garments and worshiped the Lord, in ecstatic joy, as the representative of God’s “kingdom of priests.” There is so much in these 3 short verses. First, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might. When is the last time you danced in front of the Lord with all your might? When is the last time you did anything in front of the Lord with all your might? What amazes me is that David was the leader, he was the king and yet he humbled himself and set aside his royal robes to welcome the Arc of the Covenant back into the city. David was the king and yet he didn’t care what others though of him. He didn’t care that he was wearing very little clothing. He didn’t care that he might look silly dancing around like a fool. In fact, in a later verse one of his wives sees him leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart. When he got home she called him on his behavior and he didn’t try and defend it, he didn’t feel he needed to explain himself to her, he simply said in 2 Samuel 6:21, “It was before the Lord, who chose me above your father, and above all his house, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the Lord—and I will make merry before the Lord.” He is basically saying that he doesn’t care what she thinks. The Lord has done amazing things for him, so he will praise him any way he likes.I wonder what it would be like to have that kind of courage. Actually I don’t think it took courage for David. I don’t think it even occurred to him to stop and think about what others would think. I bet his love for God was so great, he couldn’t help but be filled with joy! I love that David was filled with joy. I have heard it said that martyrs, those who die for the faith, don’t really have a choice. Their faith is so strong, their love and belief is so strong that the option to stay alive as long as they denounce their faith, is not an option at all for them. They couldn’t do it. I think it similar with David and the way he worships. I think his heart is over flowing with joy of the Lord and so the option to “tone down” his praise, it not really an option for him. It is not something that would enter his mind. I don’t think he is thinking of others at all. I think his eyes are fixed on God and that is all he is thinking about when he is praising.I wish this was me. I wish I could freely praise God without worrying what the person next to me is thinking. I wish I could just throw my hands up in the air or dance around the room without the fear of being judged. I pray for a holy boldness all the time. However, maybe I need to pray for a deeper faith, or a less distracted faith? Maybe I need to pray for God to help me keep my eyes fixed on Him so I am not thinking of what others might be thinking. It seems crazy to me that I would care more about what other people think than I would about what God thinks. I know God would be smiling down at me if I was to let loose and just worship with a childlike sense of abandonment. If I know God would be smiling, why do I care what others will think? This is my great mystery. This is the thing I keep trying to tell myself and yet I still get nervous about what others will think. I am working on this and I hope to get to David’s level of praise someday. I pray I will be able to just let the Holy Spirit lead me however He wants to. I pray I will be able to give up that control and just follow the Spirit as He leads me in praise. I pray I will have so much joy, like David did, that I can’t help but dance and leap for joy. I pray I have so much joy I can’t contain it. Sometimes I stand in the back of the church during praise and worship in my class. This way I don’t have to worry about being judged because everyone else’s eyes are straight ahead focused on Jesus. I don’t know why I think people will judge me, I am not judging them, my eyes are fixed on Jesus too. The last verse says, “So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of the horn

Matthew 10:7-8 “As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick; raise the dead; cleanse those with a skin disease; cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.”I saw this verse this morning and I thought it was a great verse for today. As you can tell, from a lot of the verses I have been sharing with you lately, the class I am taking talks a lot about the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit. I love to share this information with you because I am not sure how many of us really know or believe that the Holy Spirit is still working in a supernatural way in this world. I am sure we all believe in the signs and wonders that occurred when Jesus walked the earth and the ones the apostles saw and did. However, it seems most people do not believe these things are still happening today, or that they have been happening ever since Pentecost. Through the ages there have been times when the supernatural signs and wonders were less and less. However, there was never a time where there were’t any signs and wonders. If you read about the Saints you will see about the miracles they performed all throughout the ages. I think because the Saints are attributed to a lot of the miracles that we hear about we assume that only Saints can perform miracles. Do you want to know a secret about Saints? They weren’t always Saints. At one point every saint there is was just a regular human like you and me. They didn’t always know they were going to be a Saint. You may be on your way to Sainthood and you might not even know it. All they knew is that they loved Jesus and wanted to do all they could to follow Him. Do you love Jesus, if so you are well on your way!In the verse above Jesus is telling us what we need to do. Remember the Bible is a living document, what we are reading in the Bible is just as much for us today as it was for the apostles 2000 years ago. Jesus is telling you and me to go and proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” People need to hear this, even today. Today the enemy wants to fill us with worry and anxiety. He wants us to spend our time looking around to the world and seeing what a mess it is. He wants us to look around the world and feel like things are hopeless because that is what it looks like right now. There is so much violence, so much hatred, so much craziness. It is easy to get lost in worry and anxiety when we are looking at the world. This is why we need to affix our eyes to Jesus. He is our savior, He is our peace. It is only when we take our eyes off of Him that we get wrapped up in worry and even fear. It seems more and more people are giving into fear and anxiety these days. They are taking their eyes off of Jesus and turning them to the news, to social media and to the newspapers. We need to be proclaiming the good news of Jesus. We need to be helping people turn their eyes back to Jesus and what better way to do that than to show them signs and wonders. Signs and wonders will not necessarily be enough to change the hearts towards Jesus, however, signs and wonders might get their attention and once we have their attention we can tell them all about Jesus’ love. I think a lot of people are disillusioned with the Church these days. They see all the division and the scandal and they think that is all the church is. The Church is made up of people and since we are a fallen people there will always be people that don’t do as they are called to do. This isn’t a reason to take our eyes of Jesus, if anything it should be more of a reason to keep our eyes fixed on Him so He can help us not make those same mistakes. Be honest, when I mention signs and wonders, do you instantly count yourself out? Are you thinking the Saints could do them because they were Saints, but that isn’t something us ordinary humans can do? Me too! I used to think like this too. Well, actually, if I am being honest I still have doubts, but they lessen with each step out in faith that I take. If you are like me you don’t have doubts that God could do miracles through you, God is God, He can do anything. However, when I start to think of God doing signs and wonders through me I think, “Why me?” The enemy gets in my mind and he tells me God wouldn’t use me. He tells me I am too boring, too weak, too sinful, not holy enough, not good enough and so on. The thing is, Jesus doesn’t usually use those who are perfect. He didn’t come to find “perfect” people to start His church. He used 12 people who most of us wouldn’t have picked. One of the reasons the Gospels start with the lineage of Jesus is to show us that Jesus did not come from a perfect line of people. There were plenty of people in Jesus’ lineage that weren’t holy enough, weren’t good enough, weren’t even close to perfect by the world’s standards, and yet they were chosen out of everyone to be part of the lineage of Christ. Besides proclaiming the good news, Jesus is calling us to “Cure the sic

God Will Make A Way Where There Is No WayJohn 16:33 “I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!”This is something that we can all take heart in knowing. We will all face persecution, but Jesus has conquered this world. We don’t have to worry that the persecution will be the end of us. Sometimes it feels like it will. There are times when the persecution seems like it is too much, like we are drowning and we can’t possible come up for air. This is when it is important to remember this verse. The enemy will definitely try to make you feel like he is winning. He will make you feel like you are in a losing situation and no matter what happens you can’t win.This is actually his specialty. He loves to make us feel like we are in a hopeless situation. He whispers in our ear that there is no way out. No matter what you do, you hurt someone, you lose someone, you end up getting hurt, whatever it is. I have had several friends that have been in this type of situation lately. When we are in those situations the enemy may be right, there is no way out that we can see. It is those last words that I want you to focus on. No way out that we can see. The thing is, we don’t have to see a way out. God can see things that we can’t see. He can make a way where there is no way. God is really good at making a way in times when people thought for sure there wasn’t a way. I am sure when the Israelites were leaving Egypt and they were being pursued by the Egyptian army they thought there was no way out. The army was gaining on them and all they saw in front of them was the Red Sea. There was no possible outcome that they could see where they lived. If they tried to cross the Red Sea they would drown. If they turned back they would be caught and surly be killed for fleeing. It seemed like they were in an impossible situation. However, God made a way where there was no way. In Exodus 14:15-18 it says, “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward. But you lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the Israelites may go into the sea on dry ground. Then I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them; and so I will gain glory for myself over Pharaoh and all his army, his chariots, and his chariot drivers. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gained glory for myself over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his chariot drivers.”I am 100% sure that there wasn’t a single person in that group of people that saw that way out. God can make a way where there is no way. Maybe you are in a situation where you can’t see a way out, hang in there, God has a plan. Maybe you are in a situation where there is no good choice, God will show you which to choose if you ask Him. If you are stuck in a situation and you can’t see a way out, I urge you to read Isaiah 43. I found Isaiah 43:15-16, “I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King. Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters,” when I was searching for a verse about God making a way where there wasn’t one. However, when I went to the verse I decided to read the whole chapter and it is really good. It talks about various things that the Lord has done for us over the years. Isaiah 43:19 says, “I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”The Bible is full of stories where God did the impossible, where He did something that no one saw coming. Remember Daniel in the lion’s den? Daniel continued to pray to our Lord, even when it was outlawed and so he was thrown in the Lion’s pit. God sent and angel to keep the Lion’s mouths closed so they wouldn’t eat Daniel. This can be found in Daniel 6. There was also Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego that refused to bow to King Nebuchadnessar’s golden statue and were thrown in the fiery furnace. God sent an angel into the furnace to keep them from burning up. This can be found in Daniel 3. I am sure no-one involved in these two circumstances could have seen these two outcomes. However, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego all had the courage to stay in the fight. They had the courage to trust God would get them out of the situation even when they couldn’t see how. Can we be more like this guys? Can we keep doing the next right thing, even when we don’t see how it will all turn out? Can we keep going when it seems like all is lost?This bible verse reminds us that all is not lost. Yes, the enemy might be making your life miserable, just he was with Job. Remember Job? He lost everything. His crops, his animals, his children, and eventually his health. He could not see any way forward that wasn’t filled with misery. And yet, he stayed in the fight. He didn’t give up on God. If you ever feel like your life can’t ge

Today’s guest speaker is a very special guest because he is my dad, Pierre D. Pierre is a deacon at his church, he is a husband and father to 11 children and numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren. My mom and dad raised us all in the Catholic faith and I am so very grateful to them. They didn’t just send us to religious education classes and bring us to church on Sunday, they lived the faith all day every day. They were so faithful and they showed us how to rely on the Lord. Having 11 children means there is never enough money for all your needs and yet we never went without all that we needed. God was so good to my parents and I am excited to have my dad share some of his experiences with you. Today he will be talking about how a life in the spirit seminar changed his life. I know you will enjoy this as much as I did! We have all seen God working in our lives, however, we might not all be aware it is God who is 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 you have had of how God has worked or is working your life, please email me at [email protected] or just click on the link below. 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. I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow and I will have another witness for you next Wednesday. Have a blessed day! 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

Struck Down, But Not Destroyed2 Corinthians 4:8-9 “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”I saw this verse written on a page in my book today and thought to myself, man if there was ever a time that we needed to hear this. The world is crazy right now. There is so much tragedy and pain. It seems like it all keeps coming in waves. It is like one thing after another. Life seemed like maybe it was beginning to calm down a bit and then all the violence in Afghanistan and now the hurricane in Louisiana. It seems to be nonstop these days. If you watch the news a lot you can easily get overwhelmed and scared. I think it is important to stay inform and I also think that we need to protect ourselves at the same time. If you find that watching the news makes you anxious and fearful then maybe watch less of it. You can be informed without having the news on 24 hours a day. Remember that we are in charge of protecting our thoughts. We get to decide what we allow to influence our mind. There needs to be some balance between the craziness of the world and the grounding influence of God. For instance, if you are watching an hour of the news, maybe watch an hour of something that makes you remember all is not bad. Maybe listen to a podcast or read a spiritual book. Anyway, back to this scripture. It does seem right now like we are “hard pressed on every side.” It seems like bad things are coming at us from all sides. Like in those movies when the walls start closing in and the room gets smaller and smaller. Life can often feel like that. It can be hard to breathe sometimes because we feel squeezed on all sides. It is important to remember when we feel like this that although we feel pressed, we are not crushed. We are still here, the trouble has not gotten the better of us. God will not let that happen. He may let us fall down with the weight of it all, but he will not let is crush us and he will be there to pick us back up again if we do fall. The next part says perplexed, but not in despair. I don’t think there is a single person in the world, or at least in this country that is not perplexed right now. Trying to understand what is going on in the world right now leaves us all confused. A global pandemic, how does that happen? Why does that happen? All the systemic racism in this country, how did we let that happen? How do we begin to change it? Why all the natural disasters, the wild fires, the hurricanes & earthquakes, the flooding? What is going on in this world? Although this is all very confusing, hopefully we are not in despair. What is despair? Despair is the complete loss or absence of hope. I can see how it could be easy these days to fall into despair. I could see how many could be starting to question if we have hope. What about the people that are in Louisiana right now. The last two years have been awful for everyone and I feel as though our country was just starting to come back to life a little. People seemed to be looking towards the future with a little more light and hope. Then this hurricane comes and devastates so many people. Or what about those that have lost people in Afghanistan, or what about the refugees of Afghanistan. It is easy to understand why people might be falling into despair. We must fight these feelings of despair. Yes, times are incredibly hard right now. Yes it seems like it is coming at us from all angles and we can’t seem to catch a break. But there is always hope. If God brought you to it, He will bring you through it. The last part of the verse says persecuted but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. Is this how you are feeling? Are you feeling persecuted? I know many in this country are feeling this right now. If this is you, know that you are not abandoned. God never leaves your side. He is there with you even when you are feeling persecuted. God actually told us in the bible that we would be persecuted. Matthew 5:10-12 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” God is there with you through this all and He even states that your reward is great in heaven. If you are feeling struck down right now, know that God will not let this situation destroy you. It may feel like you are destroyed, but God won’t let that happen. You may be down, but you are not down for the count. God will help you get back on your feet again. Trust that He is there for you and lean into Him when you feel like you don’t have the strength to do it on your own. He is strong. He can handle the weight of your problems. Sometimes we don’t have to lean on God because we feel like He is too busy or because we do

The Tree House2 Corinthians 1:20 “For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory.”All God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “yes!” How great is that? All God’s promises have been fulfilled. There is not one thing that God promised that He has not followed through on. That is amazing. I wish I could say the same. There is a house down the street from us that just got renovated. The new owners built a whole new second floor to this house. They also did a lot of renovations on the outside of the house and in the yard. One thing they built in the yard is a beautiful tree house. It looks so awesome and even has a climbing wall on one side so if they didn’t want to take the stairs, they could take the more difficult way up. I feel like life is like this. I feel like God provides us the stairs to make it to the top, but often times we choose the climbing wall. We could choose the path that was pretty well laid out for us where we just need to put one foot in front of the other and climb one step at a time. We know the next right step and we continue to take each step until we reach the end. However, sometimes we choose the difficult path. Sometimes we choose the climbing wall. We chose the path where we don’t know what the next step is. We need to feel our way through and look for where each new step is. We can’t find the next step until we take the first step. And depending on where we step, we will have limited options for our next step. The reason I thought of this tree house when the reading was talking about promises is because we told our middle son, Noah, that we would help him build a tree house. And yet that never happened? Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever told someone, promised someone, that you would do something, and then not done it. It is an awful feeling to not keep a promise and to let someone down. I am not sure why it never got done. I am sure I can find a whole list of excuses. However, none of them make me feel better when I see the beautiful tree house this family built. Regret is a terrible feeling. I am definitely not a fan. It is definitely an opening for the enemy to get in and destroy some people. I have seen it numerous time on TV and movies. Can you think of anyone you know that just can’t let go of something that happened in the past? Sometimes we can get stuck on something in our past and we let it bother us for far too long. I am not saying we shouldn’t feel bad if we broke a promise to someone. I wish we were like God and we could keep every promise that we make. Unfortunately, we are a broken people and so occasionally, we will break promises. What is important is what we do after we break a promise. Do we repent and ask the person for forgiveness? Do we forget about everything and start over again? Do we pretend it never happened and just move on? What is the right protocol in this scenario? I would say we should go back to the golden rule. How would you like someone to act towards you in this scenario. I think repentance is important. Tell the person you are sorry you did not follow through with the action you promised you would do. Try to make it up to them in some way. If you can’t make it up to them then apologize and move forward from there.What is not a good idea in this situation is to sit and think about what you did over and over again. Regret is not good because it eats away at you slowly from the inside. I read a book once called Miracle Mornings. It is a book by Hal Elrod. It is an excellent read in case you have not heard of it before. It is a book about how to start a really helpful morning routine. Anyway, the author talks about a 5 minute rule that I feel could be really helpful here. He used to see Cutco knives. He would get really upset when someone would cancel their appointment with him because he worked off commission. His boss told him about the 5 minute rule. This is a way to not get stuck in the negative feelings. He said when something upsets you take a minute and think about whether or not you can change the thing that just happened? For instance, someone calls up to cancel and appointment with you at the last minute. Can you change the fact that this customer canceled? No. In this case, where there is nothing that you can do to change it, you set a timer for 5 minutes and that is how long you allow yourself to be upset. You have 5 minutes to yell, scream, cry, etc and then you need to move on. Hal found this 5 minute rule to be very helpful in his life. At first he said it took longer than 5 minutes. He said after 5 minutes if you still can’t let the emotions go, set the timer for another 5 minutes. Eventually you will train yourself to let things go sooner. If there is nothing you can do about a situation then there is no reason to keep dwelling on it.This is what the enemy wants. He wants us to dwell on

God Will Fulfil Every Need!Philippians 4:19 “I am convinced that my God will fully satisfy every need you have, for I have seen the abundant riches of glory revealed to me through Jesus Christ!”This was in a letter from St. Paul the Philippians. When I read it this morning I wondered, are we convinced? I know St. Paul was convinced, he had seen God come through time and time again for him and his followers. However, what if we haven’t seen God come through? What if we have never really been in a situation where it felt like we needed God to come through? How do we become convinced that God will satisfy our every need?What comes to my mind first is that if you haven’t seen God provide for you then you aren’t looking hard enough. I would argue if you have never had a time when it felt like you had to rely on God then God has blessed you even more because you never went without. I do think if you have little and you have no idea where your next meal or the money to pay the bills is going to come from, then you learn to rely on God more and you get to see Him work more in your lives. That does not mean that He is working more, it just means that you see it more.God is working in each one of our lives. There isn’t a single one of us that He puts on earth and then just forgets about. He knows everything about each one of us. He not only knows your needs but He knows your wants and your desires too. He put them in your heart. He will take care of providing for you all that you need. However, He will also help you get the things you want as well. Oftentimes it is not in the time that we want.For instance, we may have wanted to get married when we were 20 and instead, it happened when we were 40. I don’t know why this happens but what is coming to mind right now is two different scenarios. First, maybe we weren’t the person we needed to be earlier in life. Maybe if we had gotten married earlier it wouldn’t have worked out because we weren’t ready. The second is that God allows us to make our own choices so maybe we weren’t listening to Him and we were doing our own thing. God's ways are higher than our ways so I have no idea why things don’t happen in our timing. I wish I did. I wish I had an answer for every person who wanted a child and didn’t have one, or wanted to be married and hasn’t found the right person yet. I wish I could tell you why sometimes you have desires that weren’t realized. I honestly don’t have answers for that.I do know it says in Romans 5:5, “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Hope in the Lord does not disappoint so we don't have to be scared or afraid to hope in the Lord for our dreams and desires to come true. I don’t think we have to be afraid our dreams are not His dreams for us either. I believe He put our dreams in our hearts and as long as we are close with Him, as long as we are doing our best to listen to Him, then we don't have to be worried about them not being His dreams for us too.I just spent some time talking about how God will provide all we need for our heart’s desires. What I want to talk about now is something that I am not sure many people know or believe. God can and will provide for your everyday needs too. Did you know that God can give you money, food, cars, or whatever you need in miraculous ways? We tend to put God in a box and we think He has the same constraints that we have. We look at our situation and we don’t see a way and we assume there isn’t a way. However, God is a way maker. He doesn’t need to follow a path, He can create His own path. Just as He did for the Israelites when he parted the Red Sea.However, it doesn’t have to be that dramatic. Sometimes He can create a miraculous answer to your prayer without a big show, without fanfare, without you even realizing it is Him doing it. My dad is a deacon and so I got a front-row seat to hear him talk about all the ways God helped our family. Honestly, I feel like he could talk about them all day every day and we would never run out of miracle stories. I don’t think my family is unique in this way. I think God is working miracles in many of our lives. I think there are two differences with my parents that others may not be doing.First, they always went to God with their needs. They didn’t try to solve it first on their own. They didn’t save prayer for the last resort. Luckily they both knew the power of prayer and so it was their first response to a problem. Second, they were on the lookout for the miracle. They have this faith that they are absolutely sure God will provide. It is amazing to watch. They never told us growing up that we should pray and that if we were lucky, God would provide for us. They never told us God might come through. They taught us that God is a God who provides and if we ask He answers. I am more grateful for that lesson than for anything else they taught me. Sitting in the pews at church listen

The Example of Jesus ChristPhilippians 2:6-8 “He existed in the form of God, yet he gave no thought to seizing equality with God as his supreme prize. Instead, he emptied himself of his outward glory by reducing himself to the form of a lowly servant. He became human! He humbled himself and became vulnerable, choosing to be revealed as a man and was obedient. He was a perfect example, even in his death—a criminal’s death by crucifixion!What jumped out at me in this verse was the line that says, “He emptied himself of his outward glory by reducing himself to the form of a lowly servant.” Jesus did not just enter existence when He was born into this world. I guess I never really thought of that before. Have you noticed that God reveals things to us slowly? Or maybe it is just that it takes us a while to come around to being curious enough to be taught. I am not sure. I do know that I am always learning new things. You would think being Catholic my whole life, going through all the religious education classes as a kid, teaching them as an adult and even participating in RCIA, I would know all there is to know. However, I am always learning something new.I am sure it is the same with you. The Bible is so vast, our Catholic religion is so rich, there is no way anyone can know everything. Even if we think we have it all figured out, the Lord opens up an old favorite scripture in a new way. That is so amazing to me. God is so good!!It says in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” This is true. What is also true is that Jesus volunteered for the job. I sort of had it in my mind for the longest time that there was God, and he was alone. Then he decided to give us Jesus through Mary and the Holy Spirit. But I never thought about Jesus existing before He walked the earth. I never thought of the fact that He had a say in the matter. We read about Jesus in the garden the night before he was crucified. We read about how He was in agony because He knew what He had to go through and yet was willing to do it anyway. However, we don’t really talk about how it was His choice to live this life. Yes, God gave Him to us, but not without His permission.Can you imagine, Jesus was up in heaven with God. He was/is God. He is sitting up there surrounded by the angels. He is being praised and worshipped all day and night. Everything is great, everything is perfect. There is no illness, there is no anger or hate, there is only love. Can you imagine sitting up in heaven and looking down at Earth and seeing how much we are struggling? Not only that though, He could see the brokenness of the world. He could see how cruel people were. He could see how much greed and jealousy there was. He could see all the pain and suffering. He could see all the violence. He could see all of that and yet His desire to save us was greater than His desire to stay in Heaven where all was perfect.He decided to enter into a broken world. He decided to come down and join a world that He already knew would hate Him, mistreat Him, and eventually crucify Him. Can you even imagine that? I can’t. I know some people have died and gone to heaven but then were brought back to life. I can’t imagine being that close to heaven and then having to come back to this broken world. Heaven was His home. He was at home with His dad and the Holy Spirit and agreed to leave all that behind to save us.We live in a world that emphasizes fame and fortune. Everyone wants to be on top and many are not afraid to step on others to get there. We definitely don’t see a lot of humility. We don’t see a lot of people who are willing to let others take the credit for the things they have done. But Jesus didn’t want the glory. When He first started healing people He would tell them to go in peace and not to tell anyone what He had done. He was happy to live in the shadows and not get credit for the work He had done.I am not a big Olympics fan. I am not sure why I never really got into it. Maybe because my parents weren’t into it. Or maybe they were but we didn’t have a TV for a lot of years when I was growing up so we couldn’t have watched it if we wanted to. I did not watch the Olympics this year unless I happened to be out and about and it was on the TV. For instance, I was at a retirement celebration at a restaurant and they had the Olympics on the TV. It was a trampoline competition which I had no idea was even an Olympic event. They were awesome though. Most of what I learned about the Olympics this year came from my children filling me in or clips I saw on YouTube when I was uploading my podcast episodes.There were so many good stories that I heard. One was about the second and third-place gymnastics winners bowing to the first-place winner to show her respect and show they honor her. Another one was not at the Olympics but at a different race. There was a runner from Kenya who mistook