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.

 

There’s no GOOD hurricane—certainly not Milton.

I have been in North Florida for five months and have been concerned about three hurricanes. Two of them came right through where I live. Milton’s path took its toll on the middle of the state.

Once again, we wake to the devastation wind and waves can do to the landscape. What took years to develop is destroyed in a matter of hours or minutes. The most precious loss is that of lives. There is nothing good about that loss or any loss.

It always leaves me with a deep sadness that I can’t even put into words when I watch the coverage of the possessions of people that they worked to acquire now sitting alongside the road. It’s heartbreaking. I have been through many hurricanes and for some reason, I have been spared what these dear souls are experiencing. The most I have had to endure is the loss of power for several days. Times like these make you look at life in a whole new light.

While still being alive is of the utmost blessing, having to stand and survey at the moment everything you own in this world floating around your feet has to be a close second.

I always utter these same words, “How does anyone survive the loss? Where do you even start?” And then I can’t even imagine what these people are going through.

I’ve said to others while watching these events unfold, that I would hope with all my heart that anyone who woke up to their lives having been spared such tragedy would be grateful! I hate to have lost everything and think that some people who didn’t even have a disruption of anything weren’t being anything but grateful. And yet, today there will be people who will complain about the smallest, most stupid inconvenience. These people who have been affected would give their right arms to have their lives back intact.

I am thankful this morning that my life is intact in every way. I’ll go about today and days moving forward being cautious about uttering a single word of complaint.

My prayers are with those from the two other hurricanes as well, and now Milton who are still trying to piece their lives back together.

As a Christian I take my heart to the Lord and am reminded that the Word doesn’t say that ALL things are good—clearly, they are not. But what it does say is that it gives us the hope that in whatever situation we find ourselves that God will take it and WORK it together for our good.

I’ve had other events in my life that I have found great comfort in in this Word. I hope that the world will be kind and gentle with the feelings of those who have lost everything.

I hope those of us who know the Lord and our lives have been spared will be thankful today and lift those less fortunate up in prayer.

I bless you.

 Hurricane Helene

I’m sitting in North Florida right now awaiting Hurricane Helene. It’s strange to look out my second-floor window at the trees across from me that are barely moving. It is an overcast grey day but other than that it looks like any other normal rainy Florida day.

If it weren’t for the barrage of weather reports one would never know what is looming just miles away. A storm with a magnitude of over 120 mile-an-hour angry winds accompanied by a deluge of water ready to be dumped upon our coastline is imminent.

We know that it’s coming. It will not be a surprise to anyone once it reaches our state.

It’s making me think about the proverbial calm before the storm right this moment or other times in my life when there was an approaching personal storm that I didn’t see coming. Life has a way of doing that to all of us. The last one I went through was health-related. But as you can see—I’m still here.

I weathered the storm of a year’s worth of winds and rain assaulting my body. As we often view the results of the aftermath of hurricanes, there is always widespread damage, and the landscape is sometimes permanently altered.

Life events that come upon us unawares can also leave us permanently altered, but they can also leave us better for their coming. That’s my case. I learned about the close abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. I knew His voice and had experienced His comfort numerous times before. But there’s an even closer awareness one experiences in times of complete dependency.

I’m a needy person. I admit that with no shame. I understand the Word in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 where Paul says that his weakness is really his greatest strength. I know that might sound confusing but until you experience it personally it does sound like a contradiction.

There’s nothing like waking up in the middle of the night feeling so overwhelmed that you can hardly breathe, and the Holy Spirit softly comforts you enabling you to fall back to sleep. The truth is that no matter if we are facing an external weather-induced storm or a personal physical, mental, or emotional storm that seems that it will overtake us—there is a place of refuge in God.

Few people know that until something hits their life. Some people will never take advantage of the reality of a loving God who longs to embrace their life. I don’t know what their thoughts could be to turn down the promise of Eternal life and the comforter coming to abide within us.

But sadly, the landscape of Florida and other states will be altered in a few short hours. And there will be reports of people who didn’t take this storm seriously and suffered loss, some even their lives.

My viewers are few, but I still feel the need to offer a lifeline that is sure and secure. May God watch over Florida today and protect all that call upon His name.

I bless you

 

 

Muddy Faith

This might sound like a strange thing to compare your faith in the Lord with—mud.

But that’s where mine was attached to when I went through my health issue over two years ago. I wish that I could say that I had the “Just speak the Word,” kind of faith but I’m not there.

But thank God that even if we can’t have faith so strong to just believe the Word of healing over our lives, we still can be healed. 

That was my path to healing. The Lord spoke to me very clearly that I was to trust Him and that he would overrule all the systems of the world on my behalf. I held to the example of Jesus putting mud on the eyes of the blind man and telling him to go to the pool of Siloam and wash it off. This man had to walk a distance in faith to receive his healing.

I believed that I was healed the minute the Lord spoke to me the night my issue started. But I had to walk to my pool of healing. I believe that it was due to the Lord knowing my level of faith.

I want to encourage anyone reading here, that God knows where you are in your faith. He also knows if you haven’t yet accepted the Gift of salvation through believing in the Blood of Jesus who died for your sins and have asked Him to come into your life as Lord and Savior.

Of everything I could post here, that’s the greatest thing I can offer you. If you are alive and breathing, it doesn’t take a great deal of common sense on anyone’s part to know that the world is in a mess. I haven’t known a time like this in my seventy-five years that I woke up every day wondering what tragic event had happened overnight. It would be alarming if it wasn’t for my trust in the Lord. Even if it’s a muddy faith.

God loves us so much that He lives within us at the level of faith we have. He spoke something to my spirit the other day while I was praying about the current matters at hand that really made me stop and think about what He said.

I had read a devotional about not giving up on prayer. Even when it doesn’t seem that God is working it doesn’t mean that He isn’t. This scripture came to mind. 2 Timothy 2:13 If we are faithless, He remains faithful (true to His word and His righteous character) for He cannot deny Himself.

God spoke very softly to me, “I have too much invested in you to give up on you; not that that will ever happen anyway.”

Maybe you don’t believe that you can have a real conversation with Almighty God. I know, it’s an amazing thing to even think about. But that’s the mystery and beauty of knowing God as your Savior, Friend, Lord, and Lover of your soul.

I can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t accept this incredible gift of God. But sadly, many won’t.

If you are interested in reading about my Muddy Faith. You can buy a copy here.

I bless you.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C2SCNWCX?ref_=ast_author_ofdp

 

 

Ever been in a boat on a lake?

You might answer yes to the title question but if you read further, the question isn’t finished yet.

And the dark clouds have gathered quicker than you expected, and you are in the middle of the lake open to the elements?

I have been in such a situation. We had gone fishing early in the morning. The sky was showing off its beautiful Florida dawn colors. The lake was like glass. We had hot coffee in each of our cups and headed our small boat out across the lake. It was a picture-perfect day.

Our anticipation of having a good day fishing was the only thing on our minds. We anchored near a clump of low-hanging tree branches and cast in the first of many worms. Within seconds, I had pulled in a beautiful largemouth bass. My excitement was evident. I’d learned how to cast a perfect cast under the branches. The bass were bedding, and they hated to have anything invade their beds.

We trolled casually around the edge of the lake getting further from the boat ramp. Because the situation was so advantageous to fishing we lost sight of the clouds gathering over our heads. I glanced up a time or two but because the fishing had taken my entire attention off those slightly darkening clouds, I missed the still small voice within me cautioning us to begin to slowly make our way back toward where we had parked the truck.

Calamity often strikes us quickly. Sometimes we have warnings but most of the really devastating events in our lives come out of the blue. A very appropriate description of our fishing trip.

One minute the sky was blue and inviting and the next it had quickly darkened, and the wind had begun to whip up around our boat. It became apparent that we might be in trouble.

Our small outboard motor was doing its best to get us back to shore. I knew that we were in trouble. Why hadn’t I kept my eye on the clouds around us? I had seen them getting a bit dark, but my mind was so fixed on fishing that I ignored the clouds changing.

Sure enough, the wind grew stronger pushing against us as we crossed the open lake. Halfway across, those luminous dark clouds unzipped, and a torrent of rain began to sting our faces. Streaks of lightning zig-zagged a few hundred feet from the lake.

I prayed. I really prayed. Not one of my daily, “thank you for all your blessings” type of prayers. I pulled out the deep prayers I’d prayed over my lifetime when I not only was in the midst of darkness, but I had seen it coming kind of prayers.

There’s a difference between “saying we know God” and KNOWING God. And because there is such a lifestyle, you can readily see it in others.

There’s something about seeing that glint in someone’s eye and hearing the strength of conviction in their voice when they AMEN to what you have just said. It’s encouraging, unlike Elijah who thought he was the only one when you see others share your faith.

I pray that you are one of those people who don’t just give lip service to knowing about God. I pray that you truly know Him by having a rich trusting relationship with the King of Kings. That you hear His voice and obey His instructions. So that when He says, “ head to the shore,” you will listen.

I bless you.

 It’s already done.

Note: this is a little long but please read to the end.

This is an amazing scripture. First, read it slowly and let it sink in. Maybe even read it a couple of times before you go on.

“I will answer them before they even call to me. While they are still talking about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers!” – Isaiah 65:24 

Reading this today I was taken back to an incident in my life that I’ll share with you here. First, I’ll give you a little background.

From the moment my mother knew that she was going to have another child and told my father—still in the womb—my life started down a path, not of my choosing. Upon hearing the news, my father spoke these words. “I don’t want another child. You could get rid of it. You could abort it. They do things like that.”

Because I’ve lived with the consequences of those words spoken over my life, no one can tell me otherwise. My father’s words went into my mother and landed in me. I came into this world with a death wish for my own life. From the earliest moment I can remember I hated myself. I found nothing good, no redeemable quality about me and certainly didn’t have any hope of ever seeing myself deserving to live.

Therefore, every moment of every single day I lived without hope of seeing the next five minutes. Do you know what that is like? You watch the world making plans for vacations, or having a five-year plan or where they would see themselves in ten years—I couldn’t see myself being here in the next five minutes. I even acted on those feelings and took the internal threat seriously one day and it failed. As you see, I’m still here.

But it wasn’t enough just to have failed to take my own life—something had to change. When I realized that I had failed and was still facing everything I wanted to get away from, the depression and self-loathing were even greater. What was I to do now? The next part that I feel I must share with you if I’m going to be completely honest is that I was a Christian at the time.

So how did this happen? Where was God? I’d accepted Him as my savior. I was walking in a newness of life. I was going to church regularly. I was reading my Bible. My life had drastically changed. I did see significant changes. I wasn’t the same person I had always been. So why this?

When the Holy Spirit comes into us at the moment of rebirth we step into a lifestyle that is so foreign to us. It’s as if we have been dropped down into another country not knowing the language, or the customs, and certainly don’t know where to go or what to do.

This is what stepping into the Kingdom of God is like. It’s so totally different than how we have been living since the moment we came into this world. The good news is God already knew this would happen. He knew that what He would ask us to do now that we took the first step would be utterly impossible for us to do. Seems strange, doesn’t it?

Why would God ask us to do things, even give us commandments to do certain things, knowing that we couldn’t do them? Doesn’t seem like a kind thing to me. There are so many promises about spiritual weapons that we use on the outside of us but what I want to express in this posting is that we need to examine not the attacks that come to us from the outside but the internal war that is already within us.

But, here is the even better news—He gave us the Holy Spirit abiding within us to DO everything God asks through Him. The Word says that the Holy Spirit is sent to be our helper. Comforter. Guide. Teacher. And most of all to tell us exactly what He hears the Father saying and relay it to us. Whew, what a relief. We don’t have to go it alone anymore in this world. We don’t have to try and figure out life. So my next question is why then do we keep trying to navigate life on our own even when we have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of us?

That was the introduction, now I’ll get to the example. Because I never saw a future this meant that I never planned for anything. I lived within every day. I was raising a child by myself and worked tirelessly every day just to make ends meet.

I had a car that looked and ran like it wouldn’t make it back into my driveway. It had reached a point where I didn’t know when I would get in it, and it was done for. I was lying on my mother’s couch feeling so overwhelmed with life anyway that having to even think about getting another car was catastrophic. I was literally physically ill thinking about it. Even my mother noticed that something was wrong with me. She asked me if I was alright and at the same time I heard the voice I had come to recognize as the Holy Spirit telling me to get up and take my car to a local car dealership.

At that moment I thought I had sincerely lost it. Somehow, with some physical strength enabling me to move off the couch, I stood up and walked out the door. All the way to the car lot I was screaming inside. What was I doing?! Why was I purposely doing this to myself! What did I even think would come from this insane act!?

At this point, everything I was doing had to have been God in me. When I got out of my car and a smiling eager salesman walked out to greet me I almost threw up in his face. Of course, he greeted me with, “Hello, what can I do for you today?”

I wanted to say, “Just shoot me now and get it over with.” But thankfully I didn’t. Somehow the rest of the conversation led me to a Blue 1992 Pontiac Sunbird. Thank God that he only left me just long enough to get the key to it or else I would have bolted and ran.

He handed me the key and told me to take it for a drive and see what I thought. Again in my mind, I was screaming, “WHAT I THINK ABOUT IT?!! I MUST BE CRAZIER THAN I THOUGHT TO BE DOING THIS!!”

But again, I got in the car and found myself driving down the street wondering when the man with the padded jacket would be zipping me up. I remember willing myself not to cry the whole time. To keep what little sanity I had left and just take the car back, thank him, and leave as soon as I could.

When he asked me what I thought, again I had a laundry list of thoughts that should have come spewing out of my mouth. “What I think is that my credit score is zero, I have nothing but a car that is a wreck not worth the dollars’ worth of gas I put in it. My life can't afford this car and why would you or anyone even think to give me a car?” But once again, those words didn’t come out. Instead, he led me into his office, and I sat down like a bag of rocks.

I’d been through this humiliation many times before. Trying to get a small loan from loan officers who lean back in their chairs, tapping a pencil against the desk and finally telling me that they are sorry, but they can’t or won’t loan me a dime. Getting up and slinking out of the bank once again seeing what you already feel about yourself—you are nothing and never will be worthy of anyone ever giving or doing anything for you.

As he tapped on his calculator at this point I was sinking even further beneath the waves of total humiliation and despair. Why was I doing this to myself? WHY? Hadn’t I suffered enough already?

His next question must have shocked me back to the moment when He asked me what year my current car was. It’s a wonder I could remember. The conversation went on and when he reached for his phone I knew that the final knife was about to be thrust into my heart. He was calling to check on my credit. Why I didn’t burst into flames at that moment or fill his office with insane laughter had to only be the Holy Spirit lovingly controlling me.

This is what happened next. He asked the secretary to come in, he asked me for my keys, he asked me if I had anything in my car that I needed to get out, and finally told the secretary to tell the mechanic in the back to get the 1992 Pontiac detailed for Miss Todd.

I thought, “What is this man doing? Has he gone nuts? Doesn’t he know who I am?” I’ll spare you any further anticipation. Within the next ten minutes, I had signed my name, we had exchanged keys, he walked me outside, shook my hand, and thanked ME for doing business WITH him!

God had gotten me off the couch and now he had seated me in a new car and helped me drive it off the lot. I must have come to my senses by then because I kept looking in the rearview mirror thinking that at any moment the salesman would realize what he had done and was sending the police after me.

When I pulled back into my mother’s yard and shut the car off. I heard the Holy Spirit. “Susan, I had already told that man to give my child a car.”

Now you might have read this lengthy posting and I truly hope you have. This happened to me. Every word of it is true. I lived through this. I experienced this loving faithful act of God in my life. And this isn’t the only time.

As unimaginable as it seems that God would already answer our prayers even before we pray them is beyond the scope of understanding.

He loves us so much. He longed so much to care about his creation that He came in human form in His Son Jesus.

It’s humbling when it finally hits us that God really is Good. He really does care about every one of us. That’s means—YOU also.

I always want to leave you with a blessing. But my blessing is nothing compared to how much God wants to bless you. But I’ll add mine anyway.

Bless you.

There are Giants in their Land

I don’t think If I lived to be one hundred years old I would ever not go through times of dealing with personal Giants. By that, I mean the things that come into all of our lives that we have to deal with.

Disappointment is one of my biggest giants. Right on the flipside of that is discouragement when things take a turn for the worse in my life. Things that in the back of my mind I knew might happen but hoped that they didn’t.

One of my giants involves a friendship that has gone haywire many times before and yet God keeps resurrecting it over and over. Maybe you have that friend that you love with all your heart, and they keep disappearing from you. I’m a very hands-on kind of gal when it comes to my friends. I text, email daily thoughts, reach out when they have gone silent, and then…Wham! My heart gets a punch that I don’t see coming. I should know by now how it goes but if you are like me you keep thinking, “This time it won’t happen!” And yet it does.

I have to learn to get my cry out of the way and settle back down so I can hear from the Lord. He already knew that this was going to happen again, so He was not caught unaware. I’m the one that feels blindsided.

Ugh! This flesh of mine of just too sensitive for this world. My heart hurts for days, and I have to keep bringing my hurt feelings back for the Lord to apply the Balm of Gilead on it once again.

Today when the problem arose again I ran to the Word! I have to. I can’t let a lot of time go between having the Lord rescue me or I suffer for far too long.

I sat and listened to a Charles Stanley message that came to my attention (it was the Holy Spirit leading me) and it couldn’t have been more perfect.

It came from the book of Numbers the 13^th and 14^th chapters. He began talking about how the children of Israel were knocking on the door of the promised land when the report came of giants being in the land. Of all the spies that went into the land only two, Joshua and Caleb gave a good report. All the rest spewed fear into the people and they became afraid. They began to murmur and complain and cry about wishing that they had stayed in Egypt. EGYPT!!! They had just cried to be delivered out of their life there under all the brick building and suffering and God had heard and here they were now ready to go into a land of milk and honey with God’s promise of going before them and taking care of them.

It’s easy to judge Old Testament characters but when we do, we are no different. I have to admit that right in the middle of being so incredibly happy with moving here into my promised land and seeing my giants, I fell prey to the same humanness. Maybe I should have stayed in Ohio.

Then I snapped myself out of it and ran for the Word. What am I thinking? God is the one who brought me here. He opened the door miraculously, answered one prayer after the next, and here I sit.

One other thing Dr. Stanley said that they neglected to do was to remember everything God had already done for them. I need to have my head examined if I forget even one of the amazing ways in which God has already taken care of me over the years. The fact that I am still alive these two years since my health issue in itself is nothing but a HUGE miracle!

Dr. Stanley went on to say that the fearful report of the other spies not only hurt them but hurt all the other people. So much so that it caused them to wander in the wilderness for forty years and they didn’t get to go into the promised land when they were standing right on the edge of it.

Boy, this Word hit me exactly where I needed it to today. He closed with this other scripture that he said he has lived with since he began to preach.

Joshua 1:9 Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord, thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

If I believed in tattoos I’d have this tattooed on my arm so I could look at it every day; instead, I’ll opt to just print it out and tape it on my desk.

I’m sitting in Florida because this is where I know I belong. I need the grace and help of the Holy Spirit to weather the attack of the giants and continue to trust God. He’s not going to leave or forsake us just because of a few giants. Maybe the giants in your life are screaming at you too and threatening to destroy you but God has already, through Jesus, given us the victory. We just need to keep standing and trusting God.

Giants today…POOF! Gone tomorrow.

I hope this blesses any reader who comes by directed by the Lord whose heart is under attack. Please ponder what you have read, take it into your heart, and stand strong. God has not forsaken you or me; we need to remember this.

I bless you.

Did you wake up this morning in a blessing?

I’ll start by saying that my boast is in the Lord. Where I now wake up every day is due to nothing but God's loving-kindness. I’m in the new home that I prayed for about over a year. I had no idea how overly abundantly above my prayer God would answer.

I’m tucked under His wing. If you are a Christian reading this then you understand the reference. In this ever-changing world, knowing that your life is under God’s care is worth more than anything money can buy. Finding myself there causes me to praise and thank Him every day.

But, God is no respecter of persons. Yes, it is true, He loves everyone and gave His Son Jesus so that we all might come to the saving grace of God. But not everyone will accept the gift of salvation. This is an unbelievable event to me. Who would reject such a gift? Yet, you might be one of those very people. That is why using my voice here I cannot help but offer to you the Gift of the salvation message.

My voice is small in this world. But how I use it can have far-reaching outcomes for the Glory of God. That’s what He wants from your life too. There’s so much waiting on you; you have no idea. If you're a believer who comes here to read my postings then I pray that you will always receive something you can carry off into your own life and the lives of others. Only what we do for the Lord will carry over into Heaven.

Recently, my sister went through some things that she has saved for years and asked me to find the value of them. It’s going to be a task for sure. While I have been searching for these things online it has come to me several times that no matter the value, one day they will not matter at all. Sure we pass on to family members the things we gain in this life, but they will not keep them either. Material things just keep being passed from hand to hand. But none of it will make it out of this world.

The only thing we have of any value to God is our souls. The saddest thing is to gain the whole world and end up losing your soul. For some of the wealthiest men in the world that is going to happen if they don’t know the Lord.

What will it have all been worth? And sadder yet is that they won’t know the truth until it’s too late. When they finally stand before God and cry out knowing now that He did exist, and that their eyes were blinded; leaving them eternally separated from God.

Yet each one of us can run the risk of doing the same thing. I hope that one of the main things I will accomplish with this blog is to move you to jealousy. Not of me but of the goodness of God.

Our source is and should always be God. I recently read this statement, Not from the government down, but from the people up. It was the truth about where the hope and help for our country will come from. It just goes along with my thoughts today.

God has clearly said in His Word, 2 Chronicles 7: 14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

There it is. The answer to our country’s woes.  As a Christian, I pray every day for this Nation to come back under the covering of God; That what our forefathers established this nation upon will come back. It’s the first prayer God instructs us to pray every day as believers. The second is for the peace of Jerusalem and Israel.

I’ll leave you here to reflect on your thoughts.

I bless you.

 

The FAVOR OF GOD 

This posting today is coming through extreme thankfulness for the favor of God over my life. The first thing I want to say is if you know the Lord and have an active relationship with the Holy Spirit, then you have the favor of God also.

It's a relationship promise. But it comes with a requirement and that is that you have to know God, not just know about Him. The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity and He comes into our lives when we accept the salvation promise.

He is sent to teach, comfort, guide, and relay to us whatsoever He hears the Father saying. Stop and think about that for a minute if you will.

The God of unfathomable universes, the creator of everything that was ever created, the One who has no beginning or end, Omnipresent, Omnipotent, and is Love itself, comes to abide within us.

He knows the number of hairs on our heads, maintains our lot in life, loves us with unimaginable love, forgives us, and loads us with benefits every day. His Goodness and Mercy are following after us every day. I could go on and on.

That He even sent His Son to take our place is more than we deserve and yet, the Word is full of so many promises beyond that. I truly cannot understand how anyone would refuse the offer of Salvation; I honestly can’t.

I’ve posted previously that I was waiting on God for a promise given to me well over four years ago. I have praised Him and thanked Him continuously with faith that believes before you see things come to pass.

I have been praying to move back to Florida. Well, at the end of this month that will be my new home! I cannot begin to find the words to tell you everything that God has done for me to make this move possible. This scripture recently came in my email, and it was so very timely.

Luke 1:30: “The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God.’ ” KJV

We often think about how God put His favor on others in the Word, but do we really believe that when He says that He is no respecter of persons that means that we too can expect the favor of God on our lives as well?

We are living in a troubled world right now. So many people are experiencing tragedies beyond imagination. Peace is a scarce commodity. But there is a place of refuge that is available to everyone who trusts in God.

I hope this posting will stir you to acknowledge the favor of God over your life if you know Him. If you don’t and are searching for a safe place to surrender your life to find a peace that passes all understanding, you will make that decision today.

I bless you

 

And just like that, it’s over.

I was about to sit down and work on one of my books, (yes, I write books. I’ll leave a link below.)

Oh, my, my, my, the Lord sure teaches me so many practical lessons. I just finished writing this post and clicked on another page without saving all that I wrote and—Poof—it's gone—just like that! I think God also has a very rich sense of humor.

I was writing about how later in the day yesterday after the eclipse, it felt as though nothing had happened. There was so much hype around the event then it lasted only a few minutes and it was all over. Everyone went back to their lives I’m sure just as I did.

Later that night it felt strange that the sun had come back out, life went back to normal just as though nothing had happened. I have a very grainy picture in my Gallery but other than that there was not one slight difference in the rest of my day. I knew I’d experienced a phenomenon and could now say that I had witnessed an eclipse but that was it. I’m sure all the scientists in the world would beg to differ. I’m sure they have a whole pack of evidence that they are pouring over today.

My other point that I so carelessly deleted, was that I’m not good at waiting. I’m quite bad at it. Today as I sat down to write I was a bit anxious and even might add, sad. I’m not sure why. I’m waiting for a new part of my life to come but today I'm on the waiting side of it.

Unlike the eclipse, I do have a whole lot of evidence about the things that God has changed in my life. I know that I am not the same person. I know that there are things that I don’t think or do anymore. I know that I waited on the changes and one day I turned the corner, and everything became new.

The same thing is going to happen with what I'm waiting on today. One day I’ll say, “And just like that, it's over.” There is nothing like answers to prayer. The time praying is often long and can even add some sad days, but when that answer comes—Hallelujah!

Just like this post today, I spent time writing it, and then just like that it was gone, and I had to decide if I’d forget it and go write something else or discipline myself to not give up and start over. As you can see I chose the latter. That’s one of those things that’s not easy for me. But I’m growing every day in the Lord. I love when there's evidence that I can see of changes in my life. When some of the things that used to bring my life to a standstill are no longer a part of my life—that’s a reason to rejoice!

I hope that as you read my simple blog posts you will find something encouraging to take with you into your life. And even more importantly anything bothering you right now, know that one day you will also be able to say, “And just like that, it’s over.”

I bless you.

Here is the link on Amazon, I’d appreciate it if you took a look at all my books. I’d appreciate it even more if one of them catches your eye and you purchase it.

https://www.amazon.com/Making-Dexter-Bridgestokes-Bequeath-ebook/dp/B0CSXGMNCZ

 

A need to stop beating a dead horse and the big - BUT.

How often have you had something stuck in your mind? Sometimes I wake up with a word or thought on my mind and it hounds me until I sit down and think about what’s going on with me. That's what I'm doing now.

One of my faults is always thinking that I’m the only one with what I struggle with. I have very little interaction with people daily right now, (I hope that will change soon.) So naturally it's more likely that I deal with myself and myself as confidants.

Let’s start with the phrase, stop beating a dead horse. You’d think that action wouldn’t need any encouragement at all. Who in their right mind would keep beating a dead horse expecting it to get up?

We might not be actually beating a horse, but if you are like me and I’m going to believe that you are, we do this. Sometimes it’s like a broken record. And while I’m at it, they say that doing the same thing over and over expecting different results is insanity. Now most of us are not really insane as the definition of insanity suggests but I think a lot more people than would admit—follow this pattern in their life.

I added in the BUT, because there is always one. My, BUT is, when I keep beating a mental dead horse, I know better. BUT thank the Good Lord that I finally do sit down and deal with whatever it is that is creating all those mental flies in my life. And we all know what draws flies—garbage.

There are so many things that people struggle with, whether of their own making or by others that are completely unnecessary. If it is just my own shortcomings that I’m being convicted about to either start to do better or stop doing altogether, then that’s the easier of two. BUT what is genuinely crazy, is trying to get someone else to change. Yes, dear reader, let’s have a time of confession before we continue. That’s something I do think I’m not the only one who does it.

How many times have you asked someone to stop doing something or to PLEASE do something? If you are like me you walk off more frustrated after encountering these individuals than you were to begin with.

So let’s go back to that picture of someone beating a dead horse. They can beat it until they fall over and join the horse, and NOTHING is going to change; other than both are now dead. That horse is not going to get up. As bystanders, we could all see that the person doing the beating has a problem—not the horse. It’s dead.

So why do we as humans do this? I have to ask myself during one of my self-conversations, “Why am I going over this same ground every day?”

I can give me, myself, and I some grace because I don’t do it as often or as long anymore. Maybe it's getting older and just not having the mental or physical strength to keep beating a dead horse situation. The other thing that I think helps is running out of time.

Boy, oh boy, if I had all the time back that I spent fuming over my own shortcomings or those of someone else, I’d have many more years of life added to me. But sadly we can’t get back those years that we wish we hadn’t given so many of them to beating dead horses.

That good old—hindsight- is another part of this posting. Can’t we all look back to some time in our lives and wish that we had done things differently?

As I write I see this common boat filling up with other people who just might have some of the same issues I struggle with. I am not the only one. Thankfully there is a boat that we can all get into when our Titanic begins to sink.  

Maybe my honesty is a fault, but I’d rather be honest than be the opposite. Some people are so closed off that you never know what they are thinking. What a merry-go-round of emotions we can get caught up in if we are not careful.

BUT, hear is the glorious silver lining, knowing the Lord. I know that there is help for me. I know that I don’t have to struggle with my problems alone. I might never understand the reasons why things happen or what people do that I can’t change, but I do know this—having the Lord in my life is the most important part of my life.

So today, I’m going to walk away from one of my dead horses and get on with something more productive. And I am the only one who can make the changes in my life with God's help. That might be the first dead horse you are beating. If you got up today trying to deal with all your problems alone and God isn't a source you believe in, stop reading right here and give God room to speak to you. 

We are only given one life to deal with. It’s not up to us to try and change another person or ourselves—only God can do that. When I woke up today with my current issues already racing across my mind, I came here to make this post. I know what to do today. I know where to go for the help I need in my life to change these old mental habits. I have no one to blame but me, myself, and I if I continue to get out my whip and beat my dead horse.

I hope my being honest helps any reader in some small way. If nothing else, if the main horse you are beating is that you think that you are the only one, let me assure you that you are not. In assuring you, I’m assuring myself.

We are not the only ones.

I bless you.

 

Sometimes you just don’t have time.

I certainly am not knowledgeable about all the Jewish traditions during this month. If I had been born into a Jewish family I would have been taught from a young child to understand exactly what all the practices mean. I’m an adopted child of God; and so very thankful for my gift of salvation. But I’m privileged to read about the significance of the Passover documented in the Bible in Exodus 12.

As I was enjoying my time this morning beginning my prayers with the instruction when we come to pray, is to first pray for all those in authority (1 Timothy 2: 1-3) and (Psalm 122:6 ) Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.

My mind began to drift, as it often does, which I hate, so when the picture of how the Israelites were supposed to eat the Passover meal was described in detail along with how the meal was to be prepared I began to think about these things.

I love to cook. I’m a novice bread maker. I’ve tried my hand at making yeast bread several times. I could eat yeast bread every day, all day if possible. I recently went on Keto and if you know anything about Keto—bread is a no-no unless you use different flour. (I digress.)

See how my mind drifts? My point is, I wondered why they were instructed not to use any yeast. Again, please anyone reading this who has a much better handle on the tradition, forgive my lack of knowledge.

What came to my mind as to why the lack of yeast was stated was that it takes time for bread to rise when it has yeast in it. Usually, an hour or so and then a second rise time. Everything in the 12th chapter of Exodus lends itself to being prepared for a quick exit.

My mind also drifted over to the latest news about the Baltimore Bridge accident and the loss of lives. I kept trying to bring my mind back to some sort of order of thought but in some way, it all began to come together.

As I prayed for the individuals lost in this accident, probably like most of us I couldn’t help but think that these men had absolutely no idea that anything of this magnitude would happen to them as they headed to their jobs. Then I thought about the time it takes for yeast to rise or other things that sometimes take the time that we don’t have.

The Israelites didn’t have time for bread to rise. They needed bread that could also be carried without spoilage I assume. I don’t know of any person who hasn’t at some time in their life needed more time. It’s said that time is one of the things we’ll never have enough of or ever get back.

As I have gotten older that has become more evident to me every day. I spent a lot of my time on things that didn’t really matter. Time, that now I wish I had back. One thing that time hopefully gives each of us is wisdom. Sometimes it’s too little too late. And sadly we do finally wise up but have run out of time. No one knows exactly when that time will be. As we see, we can be going about the most common everyday activity and have no idea that time is about to run out.

When I sat and gathered all the threads of my thoughts today I paused to take the time to be thankful for everything in my life. I always try to do this because when I compare my life to that of others; I have nothing to be unthankful about. I am a blessed person.

When I went through a health problem over a year ago and the pace of my life came to a halt by the interruption, I remember saying to myself and others, that when this time of my life was over I would appreciate the return to even the smallest routine of my day and take nothing for granted. I saw other people who were walking the same path as I was who had different outcomes. Sitting in a waiting room you hear conversations of all types. The ones that were hardest to listen to were people complaining about such insignificant things when there were people who would have given anything to have their everyday routine back.

This post might have felt all over the place, so I’ll try to tie it together with the pictures in my mind. I saw the Israelites, clothed, and packed, standing as they had been instructed in preparation for the journey ahead of them. Laying aside anything that would take more time than they had to prepare. I saw images of people who have had to recently flee their homes, usually with nothing but clothes on their backs because of weather or other sudden events in my area. I looked at my own life and took stock of what could be considered—yeast.

I’m prepared to grab a suitcase that contains all my important papers, a set of clothing, extra medications, a cherished Bible, and money if the fire alarm goes off in my senior apartment building. But the most important event that I am prepared for is when my time runs out; I’ve already made that preparation, and there will be nothing I have to grab.

One final thought; never ignore the urgencies in life. Those thoughts that interrupt your day that later on you wish that you hadn’t ignored.

I hope that you will take some of the time you have right now to read Matthew chapter 24 very thoughtfully. Maybe it's things that you already know and will be blessed by the reminder or maybe it will be the first time you have taken the time to do so.

I pray that what you have read here will cause you to “drift” off from your thoughts to something you didn’t expect to think about today that will change your life.

I bless you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When everything looks hopeless.

When I decided on this title I thought of how many other things I have read over the years with this same first line. Hundreds, probably thousands. Because I was attracted to anything that might lead me to an answer for my own hopelessness.

I read these articles like a starving person. Would this be the one that finally caused me to believe in life again? Would I find that keyword or phrase or five or ten-step plan to follow to lift my life out of the daily despair I fought with all my might?

Sometimes it worked for a little while but then it was like trying to walk in someone else’s shoes. I had two problems, the hopelessness I started with, and now I failed yet again to be able to do what the author had obviously been able to accomplish in their life. So much so that they felt led to write about it for others to read.

So I have to ask myself, do I have anything different to offer someone who might stumble upon this page who went searching as I did for a solution that would lift them permanently out of the pit of hopelessness?

I don’t know if what I’ll write here under that popular title will be what you came looking for. That’s my most honest answer. I never did find a solution. Believe me when I say that I earnestly searched for one. It would have been so much easier if someone could have just handed me a set of steps to take. I’d have done it in a heartbeat.

I remember reading some of those articles with tears running down my face. I repeated aloud many times, “How! How do these people do this?!”  I thought I had carefully noted every bit of advice they gave and rose up just knowing that this time I was going to be victorious—until the next time.

If my title led you here, as it often did me in search of that—fix—I’m so sorry if my title has given you false hope. But I can offer you something else. It might not be the answer you are looking for. It wasn’t for me either when God led me to befriend a woman who wanted me to do her hair as my last customer on a Friday night.

I almost said, no. It meant having to wait for her to arrive around 5:30 and then not finishing up my day until probably 7 o'clock or so. I had a young son that needed to be picked up by 5 o'clock or I would be charged more. So my thoughts were, would what I made by staying to do this woman’s hair offset the extra babysitting cost? If not, then why do it?

At that time I had no idea what made me say yes, come on, I’ll wait on you. Today, I know exactly not what but Who moved me to agree to stay late.

That night a friendship began and after watching her life for about a year, I found the answer to my hopelessness. And because I try very hard to be honest with any reader, I’ll tell you what she said to me when I asked her why she was so  happy all the time. She proceeded to say, “Because I have a hotline to heaven.”

My very first thought was, and again I make no apology for my honesty because you might have the same thought after you read my response. I said, “Oh, please don’t tell me that it’s religion.”

She said, “No, not religion.”

I said, “Then, what? What are you talking about?”

She said, “I have, Jesus.”

I wish you could have heard the groan that came out of me when I heard her final response. I went home that night to have my own debate. I did this because at that time I had no idea about the Trinity of God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All I knew was there was a God somewhere. I did give myself credit for not being totally ignorant.

With respect to your time and length of this posting, I’ll try to be brief. I spent the next week going back to her over and over again, sometimes in a heated confrontation, demanding she tell me something different as to why she was so happy all the time and I was a miserable mess. Her, Jesus, was all she kept offering me. She gave me a brief description of what I needed to do to be saved and that ended our conversation.

I wrestled with this for several days until one night I sat upright in my bed and yelled out, “Ok! Ok! God, if you are real and you are the one who has been bringing all this to a head, I can’t take it anymore!”

I had been under such conviction that even to this day I have never forgotten what I felt like that night. I had absolutely no idea exactly who God was, what He was about to do, or even if what I said would be the right words. The first thing that came out of my mouth was, “God, if I give you my life I have two requests. I have to know that the buck stops with you; that no one will ever be able to change your mind about me. That I can trust you and that you will never leave me.”

I didn’t really know that night just how Biblical my first prayer was. My heart was crying out for someone I could trust who would always have the final say about me and that they would never leave me or as I later learned—never forsake me. Even right now, my heart swells remembering how utterly forsaken I felt that night. I voiced my confession of needing Jesus to forgive me and accepted his death in my place. 

I don’t want to put words in your mouth, dear reader. And I don’t want to give you false hope. If all I can offer you is some process I took, then that isn’t going to help you. So I’ll give you what did help me.

The surrendering of my life to a God I couldn’t see, didn’t even know at the time if He was listening or would do what my friend said that He did for her. But, seconds after I uttered my first prayer to God, my eyes were opened. I understood for myself at that moment what my friend had been telling me was true.

Something wonderfully, explicitly, and unexplainable happened that night. It was as if my whole life lifted off me and I was born all over again. Yes, the term born again is actually what happens.

In closing, I went to my friend’s house the next night and asked her, “What does it feel like to become a Christian? I’m not sure, but I think I became a Christian last night.” Needless to say, tears filled her eyes, and she welcomed me into the family.

Well, dear reader, here it is almost Easter again. The world will display its bright baskets, chocolate rabbits, and colored eggs, and the Bunny will take center stage. We see it every year. You can accept this as the reason for Easter, load up on all the leftover candy sales, and go another year still hunting for the solution to your feeling of hopelessness—or maybe stop and ask the same questions I did.

If one word you read here has set something off in you that will make you so uncomfortable until you face the fact that it is God knocking on your heart asking to come in, then I have done my job.

Dear, dear, reader, I pray that you don’t go another second in your hopelessness. So I’ll offer you the only solution that I know. The same one that has been offered to the world since the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Perhaps at some other time in your life, you have heard these verses, and I’ll remind you of them again.

John 3: 16-18 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

This is Easter.

This is the answer; When everything looks hopeless.

I bless you.