The Love Test!

May we always be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and offer that special hug or touch, it may mean the difference between life and death for some as well as a test on our part.
Back in 1992 I believe it was, there was a homeless lady who came to a church we use to attend. It was a ladies conference and I was one of the greeters at the door. We were told specifically that we were to receive the tickets at the door and that they could not come into the church without one, I thought to myself, "how rude!" what if someone comes who doesn't have a ticket for whatever reason?

When the homeless lady approached the door, of course I knew that she wouldn't have a ticket but I asked her any ways just in case someone might of gave her one. She told me that she didn't have a ticket, so being the renegade that I am I lovingly stroked her back and said, "come on in, I will find you a seat."

The conference leader approached me and asked if she had a ticket. I said, "No she doesn't, but she should be allowed to attend anyways." I usually just say what I think, sometimes it gets me in a lot of trouble though. I am still seeking some wisdom from the Lord in that area LOL! He is very patient with me. Thank you Jesus!

Well anyways, I had found out later that it was all a set up and the homeless lady was a plant.

We all had volunteered our positions and I love to greet, so I chose to greet the people coming in the door. The test was whether we were going to reach out in love and welcome others despite their appearance and not having a ticket.

Well! Praise be to God I passed the test! I think the conference leader was a little upset though, I think deep down she was hoping that the test would not be passed,
because she was wanting to bring a message as to hammer the people about not loving and accepting others, so it totally caught her off guard and I messed her message all up.

Maybe it was supposed to be a message for herself?

God is so good!

Don't Panic!

God is right there and He hears your cry. He said that He would never leave you or forsake you, so don't panic! That is easier said than done, isn't it? When we feel afraid/insecure panic can easily set in. In the panic mode we begin struggling in our own desperate attempt to survive. Which can be deadly.

When fear begins creeping into our hearts and minds this is the time that we need to be still and trust God. Do not struggle by trying to do things in your own strength and power. Cry out to God! it's okay, just don't panic. Rest, be still and trust Him. Your Heavenly Daddy hears your cry and He will come to your aid just in time, and sweep you up in His arms.

Contentment And The Simple Faith Of A Child

Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me (Mt. 18:3-5).
I just recently received this in my e-mail and I would like to share it. I know it will bless your heart as it did mine.
GOD LIVES UNDER THE BED. I envy Kevin. My brother Kevin thinks God lives under his bed. At least that's what I heard him say one night. He was praying out loud in his dark bedroom, and I stopped to listen, "Are you there, God?" he said. "Where are you? Oh, I see. Under the bed." I giggled softly and tiptoed off to my own room.
Kevin's unique perspectives are often a source of amusement. But that night something else lingered long after the humor. I realized for the first time the very different world Kevin lives in. He was born 30 years ago, mentally disabled as a result of difficulties during labor. Apart from his size (he's 6-foot-2), there are few ways in which he is an adult. He reasons and communicates with the capabilities of a 7-year-old, and he always will. He will probably always believe that God lives under his bed and that Santa Claus is the one who fills the space under our tree every Christmas and that airplanes stay up in the sky because angels carry them.
I remember wondering if Kevin realizes he is different. Is he ever dissatisfied with his monotonous life? Up before dawn each day, off to work at a workshop for the disabled, home to walk our cocker spaniel, return to eat his favorite macaroni-and-cheese for dinner, and later to bed. The only variation in the entire scheme is laundry, when he hovers excitedly over the washing machine like a mother with her newborn child. He does not seem dissatisfied. He lopes out to the bus every morning at 7:05, eager for a day of simple work. He wrings his hands excitedly while the water boils on the stove before dinner, and he stays up late twice a week to gather our dirty laundry for his next day's laundry chores. And Saturdays - oh, the bliss of Saturdays! That's the day my Dad takes Kevin to the airport to have a soft drink, watch the planes land, and speculate loudly on the destination of each passenger inside. "That one's goin to Chi-car-go!" Kevin shouts as he claps his hands. His anticipation is so great he can hardly sleep on Friday nights. And so goes his world of daily rituals and weekend field trips.
Kevin doesn't know what it means to be discontent. His life is simple. He will never know the entanglements of wealth and power, and he does not care what brand of clothing he wears or what kind of food he eats. His needs have always been met, and he never worries that one day they may not be. His hands are diligent. Kevin is never so happy as when he is working. When he unloads the dishwasher or vacuums the carpet, his heart is completely in it. He does not shrink from a job when it is begun, and he does not leave a job until it is finished. But when his tasks are done, Kevin knows how to relax. He is not obsessed with his work or the work of others.
Kevin's heart is pure. He still believes everyone tells the truth, promises must be kept, and when you are wrong, you apologize instead of argue. Free from pride and unconcerned with appearances. Kevin is not afraid to cry when he is hurt, angry or sorry. He is always transparent, always sincere. And he trusts God.
Not confined by intellectual reasoning, when he comes to Christ, he comes as a child. Kevin seems to know God - to really be friends with Him in a way that is difficult for an 'educated' person to grasp. God seems like his closest companion. In my moments of doubt and frustrations with my Christianity, I envy the security Kevin has in his simple faith. It is then that I am most willing to admit that he has some divine knowledge that rises above my mortal questions. It is then I realize that perhaps he is not the one with the handicap. I am. My obligations, my fear, my pride, my circumstances - they all become disabilities when I do not trust them to God's care. Who knows if Kevin comprehends things I can never learn? After all, he has spent his whole life in that kind of innocence, praying after dark and soaking up the goodness and love of God. And one day, when the mysteries of heaven are opened, and we are all amazed at how close God really is to our hearts, I'll realize that God heard the simple prayers of a boy who believed that God lived under his bed. Kevin won't be surprised at all!
May we all learn from Kevin about contentment and the simple faith of a child.

Baptized In His Love

I have been studying the scriptures lately about God's Love, and I want to thank my friend Jim at Journaling For Growth and also my friend Larry at
Night Writing in the Morning Light because they both have been writing about God's love and loving others and this has been an inspiration for me to write something of God's Love as well. So I want to say thank you Jim and Larry for being an inspiration of the Love of God and how we are to love one another.

To walk out God's plan for us in our life and to be an honorable vessel for His use and Glory we must know who we are in Christ and before we can know who we are in Christ we must know that we are loved passionately and desperately by our Creator. In John 17:26 Jesus is praying for us to the Father and He is asking the Father to bestow upon us the same love that the Father bestowed upon Him and that we might know His love in our hearts and that Jesus Christ Himself may be in us.

Listen to what the Word of God says in (Eph. 3: 16-19) about the Love of Christ,

v. 16 May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the [Holy] Spirit [Himself indwelling your innermost being and personality].

v. 17 May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! may you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love,

v. 18 That you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God's devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it];

v. 19 [That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!

As I was studying these scriptures the title of this post came to me, "Baptized In His Love." Have we been immersed, saturated/permeated with the Love of God? Does His love indwell in our innermost being? His Love in us is the richest measure of His divine Presence and with this we become a body wholly FILLED and FLOODED with God Himself. WOW! I had to shout Hallelujah there. We must know that WE are loved as to be filled, flooded/baptized in Christ's Love before we can truly love Him. (1Jn. 4:19 AMP) We love Him because He first loved us. Now, we can pour out of ourselves His love unto others.

God's love is foreign to our natural man because it is a perfect love, there is no fear in this love. If we live in the flesh and not in the spirit we will resist His love. Those who live in the flesh will resist the Gospel and the teachings of Christ Jesus. They will shut their ears to his teachings because they cannot bear to listen to His message. (1 Jn. 4:6b AMP) And he who is not of God does not listen or pay attention to us. By this we know (recognize) the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of error. There is no love in them for the Word of God because they have resisted the love of God to dwell and come to make it's abode in their hearts, therefore they have no love for others. (1 Jn. 4:8 AMP) He who does not love has not become acquainted with God [does not and never did know Him], for God is love.

Those who deny their flesh and the lusts thereof and live in the spirit will receive the love of God and the Words of Christ with Joy. They will welcome the cleansing waves of His Love. They will abandon themselves to the peace of His perfect love. They will have no fear because they welcome His love to come and penetrate the darkness and silence the winds and the storms of life. Stillness comes and they will rest in His perfect love as it washes and fills every crevice of their being. In this welcoming surrender is the moment that we can begin to understand the breadth, length, height and depth of His Love so as to walk in the fullness of God! (1 Jn. 4:16b AMP) God is love, and he who dwells and continues in love dwells and continues in God, and God dwells and continues in him.

Baptize us with Your Love Lord!

Knowing Him Is Eternal

My Daughter bought me a book titled, "Moments of Peace for the Morning" for my birthday. I wanted to share what I read this morning. It ministered to me and I hope it will minister to you as well.

This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. (John 17:3 ESV).
There will be times in your life when your only source of comfort will be God. It will be through worship, prayer, and Bible study that you gain the energy, wisdom, and hope to make it through the day.
This is not a trial, this is the goal-to need no earthly encouragement because God has become everything to you. Your comfort, peace, and joy all come from God. It is during these times that God replaces your earthly nature with a love and longing for the eternal.
Rejoice, God is preparing you for eternal life by changing your perspective and helping you to know him better.
Build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. (Jude 1:20-21 ESV).
I thank you, Father, that learning about you today is about loving you in countless tomorrows, I love you and praise your wonderful name. In Jesus name Amen!

Is it the Truth or is it a lie?

My heart is broken, because the enemy has came in like a thief and taken captive one of our own. But alas sadly it was this person's choice. I just got word yesterday that Ray Boltz has “came out.” When I first read about this I had a lot of mixed emotions. At first I felt my heart sink to the pit of my stomach. Then I got angry with righteous indignation because of the lies of the enemy and those who turn their backs on what they know is God's Truth and begin living a life that is in direct rebellion of God.

These people know the Truth and the good news of Jesus Christ and they have even ministered to others. At one time they gave their lives to the Lord to be used by Him, and they even took part in making a difference in the lives of others by being a blessing of God’s Word in music and song. Now they say they have been living a lie! And what do they do? They walk away from what they know is the Truth and begin living a lie. See, they got it all backwards. They will say they have lived a lie when all the while they were actually living the Truth, because they were denying the lust of the flesh and walking in the power of the Spirit. They will say their sinful lifestyle feels right and because it feels right this must be how God created me. The Word of God says that we are to mortify the sinful deeds of our flesh.

Which will we yield to, the flesh/lies or the Spirit/Truth? Sadly most will yield to the lies because it makes the flesh feel comforted. Thus, people are making their own flesh their god, instead of the Creator their God. Look at what the Word of God says in (Rom. 1:24-28 AMP) Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their [own] hearts to sexual impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves [abandoning them to the degrading power of sin], Because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, Who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them over and abandoned them to vile affections and degrading passions. For their women exchanged their natural function for an unnatural and abnormal one, And the men also turned from natural relations with women and were set ablaze (burning out, consumed) with lust for one another-men committing shameful acts with men and suffering in their own bodies and personalities the inevitable consequences and penalty of their wrong-doing and going astray, which was [their] fitting retribution. And so, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God or approve of Him or consider Him worth the knowing, God gave them over to a base and condemned mind to do things not proper or decent but loathsome.

When I first read this about Ray Boltz I thought to myself, “now that he has decided to rebel against God’s Truth and give in to the lusts of his sinful flesh, how many babes in Christ who hear his statements will be lead astray, because they are still in need of some guidance?” Some may think to themselves, “Well, if Ray Boltz (of all people) has come to the conclusion that he has lived a lie, then maybe it’s okay for me to draw this same conclusion for my own life,” God forbid! I pray that this does not happen. I pray that the people of God will realize that denying the flesh is living the Truth and not the lie.

When we are negligent in our spiritual walk the enemy can creep in with thoughts to drive us further from the Truth. I heard a minister once say, “The higher we go in Christ, the things of this world/flesh will fall away.” The thing’s of the world/flesh does not like Spiritual altitude. The flesh wants us to stay on the world's plane. This is because it cannot understand the things of the Spirit, and when we go skyward they have to fall away. When we neglect our spiritual life, STINKIN THINKIN will quickly become the norm in our life.

There is a song by Rich Mullins. It's a beautiful song titled, “My Deliverer is Standing By”. This song tells us that Jesus is coming and he is standing by. You see it is never too late. The Lord’s arm is still out stretched to all those who stray from the Truth. Yes the Lord is a God of Love but also a God of Truth. Pray earnestly that all may come to the knowledge of the Truth, and be brought back to the narrow way.

If you want to read about Ray Boltz's coming out statement you can go to this Link: http://www.washingtonblade.com/2008/9-12/arts/feature/13258.cfm

Tenacity will take you up and over

Have you ever thought that tenacity, strategy, determination, ingenuity, thinking outside the box could be characteristics that are very appealing to the Lord. In fact could this be so pleasing to the Lord that He could possibly say, "My child since you have shown me your heart of tenacity and ingenuity in thinking outside of the box and beyond the normal/natural scope of things and have shown a sense of determination I am going to grant to you the desires of your heart."

I was thinking about this the other day after reading about Christ Jesus healing the man with palsy in (Luke 5:18-25) And, behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy: and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before him. And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop, and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.

Did You catch that? When Jesus saw their faith He said, "Man, thy sins are forgiven thee." The men showed their trust and confidence in Jesus by being ingeniously determined to get their friend to Him. The men did what they felt they had to do for their friend and then Jesus took it from there.

Have you heard the old saying, "There's more than one way to skin a cat?" No offense cat lovers, I love cats myself, so don't get your panties in a tuft. These men were determined to come up with a strategic way to get their friend to Jesus so that he could be healed and they were dramatically successful in their conquest. Because of their faith and ingenuity, this man so far, has been spiritually healed (his sins have been forgiven).

We must go a little further because this man's physical healing is about to be granted by Christ Jesus as well. And the Scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone? But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts? Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk?

But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (he said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up they couch, and go into thine house. And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that wheron he lay, and departed to his house, glorifying God.

Isn't Jesus cool? The Son of man (Jesus Christ) has not only the power upon earth to forgive sins which is spiritual but He also has the power upon earth to heal the body which of course is physical. I can just see the Scribes and Pharisees now, standing there with their mouths agape in total amazement and perplexity.

This story was a subtle reminder to me by the Holy Spirit that we can possibly stop short of seeing the physical miracles in our lives because we limit our vision of hope. We can look at circumstances as hopeless and get tunnel vision which then causes us to lose our faith/determination and thus we can overlook the one possible way that will birth a miracle. The men had hopes that if they couldn't get their friend through the crowd then they would go over the crowd. They were tenacious, determined and strategic. I can just see Jesus smiling as if to say, "That's my boys! and I am so proud of them for showing so much determination in their quest to get to me and having confidence in me."

If it seems as though it is impossible to get to Jesus because circumstances are blocking the way ,then we must look up and go over them. Circumstances should never stop us from our pursuit and appointed destination which is Jesus. Jesus is our Hope and He is our Answer both now and forever!

May we all be honest with ourselves and ask this question, "Am I looking up and going over the circumstances in life and trusting in Jesus or have I stopped short by looking at the overwhelming crowds of circumstances in front of me and think that all is hopeless?