Trust me… I understand.

It’s always been hard to understand why what should be the most loved-filled, wonderful occasion of the year is one of the hardest times for many people—Christmas.

I’ve had both. One very painful Christmas for me was when one of my dearest friends canceled my invitation for Christmas dinner with her family after I had helped her cook all the previous day. Her husband, who was a real stinker came in and said he didn’t want any people but the family for the day. Instantly, I wasn’t family.

I hadn’t made any preparations for feeding my son and myself, so the day was extremely hard to explain to my six-year-old. I remember sitting in the dark later that night with my heart almost refusing to beat. I never saw it coming. What was so hard to understand was that this man was usually never around for his own family. He’d come and go without a moment’s notice, yet he had the power to change Christmas for not just me but others as well. It took me years to get over that hurt. Every year after it was like reliving the hurt all over again.

Another time, as a child, my father usually ruined Christmas all the time. There wasn’t a whole lot of Christmas Cheer anyway, but my dear mother always managed to make Christmas as good as she could for my sister and me. Usually, my father would come home in a bad mood and dampen the whole evening. Nothing was ever good enough with him. No matter what my mother or us girls did it never received any praise and thanks. There was always something we didn’t do right.

This particular Christmas Eve, Mom hadn’t fixed what he thought she should have to eat so he left and went to a bar. It always amazed me what Mom could get out of a $50-a-week grocery budget for four people. But, of course, it was her fault, not his.

He'd also ruin the gift-giving. We got one major gift, a stocking that Mom filled with little things for us, and maybe one other gift. One year, we got an umbrella. My sister and I were both shocked Christmas morning when that wasn’t the gift we had anticipated.

Other years, like this year, I’m separated from my son. All the years he was in the military was sort of expected but this year it’s because of my latest move to Florida. So, yes, I understand.

But if I dwell on the outward circumstances my heart will break with loneliness. So, I purposely look inward to my Comforter. There is no way that the human heart can go through times that hurt so badly without God. Yet so many people try to do it year after year.

All the Christmas ads on TV don’t help either. Seeing families gathering around tables, laughing, and being together can send the average person over the edge.

So that is why I hope with all my heart that my small posting can reassure anyone who happens to stumble across this blog to ask the Greatest Person to come be with them—Jesus.

He NEVER forsakes or leaves us. He never will cancel an invitation to Dine with Him. He gives the best Gifts of Eternal Life, and the Holy Spirit dwelling within us.

It takes Faith to Pray, Wait upon, and Trust in someone that you can’t see physically. I understand that too. But there’s an inner knowing that the Holy Spirit lives within each one of us who has accepted the Gift of Salvation.

I wish I could look anyone who reads this in the eyes and assure them that there is nothing or no one in this world who can ever make such a promise to love and abide with us throughout our lives as God does.

I have to go to Him and ask Him to quiet my heart and mind again this Christmas. I know He will—He’s done it so many times before.

All I can add is that I bless you and hope that you will find yourself running to God this Christmas and fall into His arms.

I do sincerely bless you.

Merry Christmas!

Are you looking for a Sure Place because you have lost all hope?

 It’s 11 p.m. and I’ve been drawn to my living room to sit and cry. I’m an emotional person who wears her heart on her sleeve and doesn’t hold back her feelings. It’s been good sometimes, and other times, it has caused me a lot of pain. I understand how hurt can cause us humans to do things we would ordinarily not do. Some of these things are not good.

Every day in the news there are stories of people who for one reason or another have lost all hope. They’ve reached that place where they don’t think anyone cares if they live or die. And the saddest part is when someone does take their life, people who should have seen the signs might have seen them but looked the other way. This is not always the case but more saw than those who are totally shocked.

The world is a busy place. People are coming and going at such a rapid pace that they miss the signs of those who are in a desperate place. I’ve been desperate and there was only one Person who pulled me back from the brink of despair.

Every year at this time I start asking the Lord for a Birthday Word. A Word that He speaks clearly to my spirit so that I will know that it is Him. Tonight, I heard the 22^nd chapter of Isaiah.

I brought it up on YouTube and listened to it. How in the world could this be my Birthday Word? I listened to it again and only one line jumped out at me. And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place.

So many people are trying to find that sure place. Somewhere they can rest all their life upon. A place that will never disappoint them or turn away from them no matter what they do. I’ll be the bearer of sad news first—no person or thing can fulfill that spot. Other people are just as faulty as you and I are. Looking to even the strongest person to support you will end up letting you down.

BUT—there is Someone who is that sure nail-driven into a board who will never leave or forsake you. You might not want to hear it, but that Sure Place was established on a Cross thousands of years ago.

When Jesus laid down on that cross and offered himself to have nails pounded in his hands and feet it was for you. When that cross was lifted and dropped into that hole, that sound is still vibrating today—for you.

I know it’s hard to believe. But it’s the truth. That nail driven in His hands was the only sure place that we could hang our lives on.

I’ve authored several books and there is one chapter in God said, “Tell them IAM.” That comes back to me so many times. I’m going to add it here in this post.

 

CHAPTER

ONE

The intimate presence of the Father.

 

          Angels worshipping on their faces before the Holy God. Heaven is conducting business as usual. An arena of practice that our hearts and minds cannot even fathom. A place where multitudes of Angels are privileged to an act of worship, they cannot fully comprehend nor will ever need to understand. Why? Because they are not sons. They have always been in the Father’s presence; there, day, and night. It is not for these beings that The Plan, yet hidden from humanity, will be fulfilled.

          So why then do they dedicate themselves to worship? Why do they from beneath their folded wings utter inconceivable waves of adoration? Why do they bend down, or fall prostrate in undaunted praise? Because they manifest something that those for whom The Plan will unfold do not have right now, they have been granted the entitlement to be in the presence of the Father.

          Holy court is set and there they worship. It is natural. They have never known anything but. They have been there worshipping and praising throughout ages without end. Elders fall with drunken senses. The Plan is yet to be revealed by the forthcoming of the Only Begotten Son of God.

          Angels adore from realms of Glory; The Glory of the Father that is so formidable as it rolls out in realm upon realm. His very Existence invokes the heavens to reverberate in thunderous praise. Seated at the right hand of the Father, whom the Angelic beings acknowledge, is the Son. Hovering in swelling clouds of immeasurable Majestic sovereignty of the Glory of the Father is the Holy Spirit. Waves of unceasing praise, adoration, and honor crash in deluges of orchestrated melodies.

          Jesus, adoringly, through admiring appreciative eyes beholding the Father, comprehends a certainty; one that he and he alone acknowledges. Neither a single Elder nor any created being presently throughout the realms of Glory will ever behold what he is beholding…The Father. Of all gathered in this sphere, he is the only one looking upon the Father. The eternal Beginning. The End. He alone is the only one beholding His face. Jesus solely has the full revelation of the Father. No being can look upon Him and live. He is Holy.

          How can Jesus allow this? How can he, who holds the wherewithal, the providence, to one day unlock this atmosphere of continually beholding the Father God, allow an unsuspecting world not to be granted so great an opportunity? All power is His. In one infinitesimal second, yet spans the ages of time, heaven’s course is set into motion to change that immutable fact forever.

The Trinity agrees. It is settled.

Jesus arises, steps from off the shared throne, removes his Kingly robe, strips off his mantel of honor, and his Godly privileges, and lays everything aside on the altar before The Father. He will not regain what he has set aside until The Plan is fulfilled.

           Jesus now stands willingly stripped of his Kingly raiment. Adorned only in that of a servant’s attire, engages in one parting sanctioned act. He looks. He lingers a second, desiring an eternity to continue drinking in the Author of the Plan—The Father. But He knows that he will return and bring with him all those who will have washed their robes in the Blood of the Lamb.

          When I wrote this my spirit was so moved. I could feel the absolute decision Jesus made and why He did it. I had to believe what I wrote. I had to believe that Jesus left Heaven for me. To rescue me from myself. From all the things that life would do to me.

          I saw it in my Birthday Word again tonight and this chapter all over again. Only this time I saw Him being that Nail driven in a SURE PLACE. I saw his outstretched arms as a welcoming sign for you, me, or anyone to come to that place of love and total surrender of everything we are and find—A SURE PLACE.

           You have to come there first and ask for forgiveness and believe the truth that Jesus is your salvation. But that won't be the only time you come. I’ve come many times. I’ve come stumbling and weeping to once again confess that life is more than I can handle on my own.

But I’ve never been on my own, Jesus promised me 52 years ago that He would never leave or forsake me. And He has never broken that promise.

If you have reached a point where life is no longer worth living, I pray you stumbled upon this posting. I’m offering you the Truth and that Sure Place you have been searching for.

It’s believing in God’s only Begotten Son—Jesus.

I bless you.

 

 

 

 

 

Is America going to risk incredible loss for a few more minutes of playing?

Let me explain my title.

I woke up today on the eve of our country about to make a life-altering decision. We’ve made this decision many times before, but our values, integrity and principles have changed over the years. We’ve let what we stand for as a nation get influenced by oftentimes misleading choices that are not founded on Godly promises. And we are paying for it.

I remember when I was a child, we followed the “street light” rule. When all the kids up and down the street played together in the evening, we kept our eyes on the street lights. When one of us saw that the light had come on, we instantly STOPPED our play, and everyone scampered off home.

To today’s youth this probably sounds absurd. But every houseful of children followed that same rule. When the street light came on it was time to stop playing and get home. We probably didn’t realize then that it had to do with our safety. All we knew was that it cut into our playing time and fun. But because every kid’s household enforced that one rule, no one felt the exception. Until a family moved in one street over and this little girl was different. I remember the first time she was playing with us, and when we all stopped and headed home that she spoke those shocking words. “I don’t have to go home. My parents don’t make ME stop having fun.”

Her words became a scuttling earworm that began to twist its way into all of us. We discussed this at length with her the next time we were playing. We wanted to know how come she didn’t get into trouble? Why did her parents not have the same rule for her?

I don’t remember her answer being satisfactory to any of us, but it always made us wonder what was it her parents thought about what was right about raising kids that our parents must have missed the memo. Did our parents just want to keep us from having fun?

When I became a parent years later, guess what rule I incorporated into raising my son? You guessed it, the “street light” rule. Why? Because I understood now. I could look at my own motives and see that, like my parents, it was that I had the best interest in keeping my child safe and actually enabling him to have more fun the next day.

We have a Heavenly Father who has an even lovelier “Street Light” rule.

I want to tell you something that some of you might not believe. NO ONE will ever love you like God. There is no earthly savior, political belief, candidate, or manmade god that will ever save us. The world had a Savior, and they crucified Him on a cross.

But take heart—God planned for that to happen. His love for us is so great that we will never really understand the vastness of it until we stand before Him one day. But in the mean time we have our running orders that He has put into place to help us live safe godly lives.

The reason that the children of Israel got into trouble over and over was that they kept forgetting God. They kept leaving Him out of their lives. They—like that girl in my neighborhood—followed words other than God’s Word. If we had all let her words sway us and let them continue to worm their way into our actions, there’s no telling what would have happened in my household! I wasn’t going to risk extreme punishment for a few more minutes of playing.

I love it when I start my day off with a scripture that comes to my mind and then when I open my email devotional—there it is!

Deuteronomy 30:16 instructs, “For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience (humbly) before Him, and to keep His commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.” Likewise, Deuteronomy 30:19 urges, “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.”

Voting is just another form of having a voice. The eminent question is which will our nation choose? The voice of a failing household with no restraints to protect us and give us a chance to enjoy another day? Or return under God's protection and loving kindness?

Can we turn our nation back around from where it has slipped by one person’s vote? I think so. If every one of us takes this Word to heart. God puts it down to “You and me.”

If you—if, I will humble ourselves and pray and seek His face. The key word here is HUMBLE OURSELVES. If in humility of mind and soul we will come back to God, confess that we have let His Words slip from our nation, our homes, and our lives, he says that He will hear from heaven and heal our land.

It's not the politics of this hour that will save us, it’s who will restore the Word of God that was laid as our Foundation as a Nation.

We have another chance to look up not at a street light but at a Cross where the Light of this world hung! I hope we will all humble ourselves before we vote and head home.

I bless you and pray that you will let your voting choice lineup with the Word of God.

 

 

Read the following if you want A real eye-opener!

Every day I get a couple of devotionals in my email. Many times, they have been like a letter from the Lord deposited in a timely manner. Today was one of those times.

Bible Reading
“There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,   a heart that devises wicked schemes,    feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.” - Proverbs 6:16-19 NIV

This scripture completely describes the shape our nation is in right now. It’s sad. But more than stopping at just being sad, there is a solution. And it depends on the Body of Christ coming to God, humbling ourselves, and praying for forgiveness.

THEN, God says, “I will hear from Heaven and heal your land.” It doesn’t get any clearer than that. I pray every day another Word with promises. That first, I’m to pray for all those in authority and then for the Peace of Israel. Then I can continue with my prayers for family and friends and myself.

Some mornings, I have to admit that I fail to do this. Usually, within moments after I have started my day already involved with other activities, I get that small nudge from the Holy Spirit that I’ve gone ahead of Him. What a foolish thing to do on my part. When I do this, my day is like being in a choppy sea. Nothing goes right. I know this happens—so why do I neglect to do what I know is right? My human nature is still alive and kicking within me. Just because we become a Christian doesn’t mean that WE are not still in there somewhere wanting to do things our way.

The wonderful part of Christian living is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who was sent to help us. Every time I think about the fact that the Third Person of the Trinity of God lives right inside of me and is there to help me live my life 24/7 that alone should make me more careful to seek Him first every day.

I’ll ask you a question that I have to answer myself frequently—how many times have you wished that you had stopped and heeded that inner voice of reason instead of plowing ahead with your own will? I have done this too many times to count. But I’m learning to do it less and less. Usually, what has taught me to stop before I run off the rails, is looking back at the consequences that I had to endure and be rescued from. I could have saved myself a whole lot of pain and suffering.

But God is such a loving Father. I can come back and sit before Him knowing that I am forgiven and still loved. He already knows that I am going to mess up and I know that I’ll be welcomed back just as though I never made a mistake.

Being a Christian is the most amazing lifestyle and yet so many people refuse God’s offer of salvation because they either do not think God exists or that they do not need to be forgiven.

Please, dear reader, don’t let the day come when it will be the last time God drew you and you end up wishing that you had listened and responded.

Our country is at that dangerous crossroads right now. I pray every day that we are not soon looking back wishing that we had stopped, prayed, and repented by humbling ourselves.

If you are someone who prays as I do, I will pray that you do not grow weary in well doing. Pray for me too.

I bless you.

 

 

 

 

If hurricanes bring us together—Just Imagine what Christians praying could do!

I pray every morning for all those in authority in our country. Why do I do this? Because it is how the Lord instructs us to begin our prayers. Before I pray for anything else or anyone else, this Word brings into focus what is of most importance. It doesn’t matter what else I’m asking of the Lord, if I don’t live in a Godly Nation, my life will not be the same.

Every day the possibilities of America becoming even further away from the principles and faith that it was established upon is growing. As I prayed this morning, I thought about all those in authority who are Christians. Did they get up this morning and start their day in prayer? Are they asking God to help them take the responsibility they have been given to govern this country seriously? And even more, do they realize that they cannot do it without God’s help? But I couldn’t stop there. This is what God has to say to all of us who are Christians.

2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

So, this morning I asked myself, what if every Christian no matter where they are or what they are doing this morning, would stop, turn their total attention on God, and come together and pray—what would God do?

He's already told us what He would do. The question is what will we do concerning this instruction in the Word?

We’ve just seen four major hurricanes sweep through our states. And because people come together in times of need to support one another, then what if Christians were to come together to do the most beneficial thing, we as Christians could do for our country?

PRAY—act upon our faith and do what God says to do and see then what He will do. There have been other times when Christians have gathered as one unit and prayed together. Maybe because of the serious state of chaos our country is in right now, we will do it again. I think we are standing at a crucial point in the history of America. 

I close this posting with my first line—Imagine what we could do if we all came together and prayed.

I bless this wonderful Nation we live in.

I bless you.