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Many people say they love God, but God has requirements. So how do we love God?  With our passion and our obedience.

 ”Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.” Mark 12 :29-30 NLT

“Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.” John 14:21 NLT

“…But put on the Lord Jesus Christ…”  Rom 13:14  (NLT)

The sea of life is filled with storms of every kind. I need a life-preserver. Everyone needs a life-preserver. 

In the natural there are different types of life-preservers.  Narrowing it down to two types, the first is a flat ring that a person can grab and hold.  It is for emergencies only.  The other kind is a suit that covers the body. This frees one to enjoy the journey. 

Emotionally and spiritually we all need to put on Christ as our Life-Preserver.  One sure recipe for failure is getting into the habit of using other people as a life-preserver in place of God. 

Take, for instance, looking for a spouse. When that dream is our main focus, it becomes a matter of life and death to us…our life preserver. In this mindset we reach out, grab hold and hang on for dear life when someone comes along that attracts us.  This eventually strangles the relationship. Only God can handle that kind of intensity. Only God is to be worshipped.

To be joyfully single requires a focus on relationship with Christ.  What is your purpose in life?  Seek after God and his ways first, then volunteer in an area you feel passionate toward, learn to give Bible studies by going along with one who is gifted in that area, or save up to go on a missions trip. The opportunities in God’s purpose for singles are unlimited! 

These steps may sound simple, but our emotions are our struggle. To really change from the inside out we need God’s help. 

No need to beg, God is waiting for your decision to follow Him no matter what, spouse or no spouse, then He can work in you, giving you life more abundantly. In other words, when you give up being frustrated or angry at God for your singleness or other situation in life, then He can begin to accomplish His purpose in you. John 10:10 “…My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.”

By the way, if a spouse is in His plans for your future, don’t worry about your geography. No matter where you live…big city or rural town…belong to a large church or small, it only takes one…God will bring that person in your life at the right time. But your mind must be made up to make Him your only Life-Preserver, and you will be tested on this.  Oh, and don’t be alarmed by silence.  Remember, the teacher is always silent when giving a test.  Take time to know Him then you will be able to trust His love in the silence during times of testing.

Positioning another person as our life-preserver will make us feel deperate, whether we are single or married.  That feeling of desparation will cause us to feel panicky, hurting someone as we try to grab hold of them, seemingly our ’last chance’ to keep from drowning.  On the other hand, making God’s purpose your main focus sets you free, free to enjoy their company. If in the end they go on their way, you still have them as a friend.  Or if you marry, you have a life long partner, but that person still is not your life-preserver. That relationship only belongs to the One who created us.

For all of us putting on Christ is not using God as one would a flotation ring…only in emergencies…reaching out to other things and people as they float by in this life.  Choosing this lifestyle, we neither enjoy our relationship (or rather lack of it) with God which affects every other relationship.  But when we choose to put on Christ, we enjoy His presence. We begin to radiate an attractive confidence that comes only from daily relationship with the One who made us.  We are complete in Him. (Col 2:10)

I learned early that I needed a life-preserver. My mother, living in a storm tossed marriage, learned how to put on Christ and shared that knowledge with me.  She shared it when I took it willingly and applied it when I didn’t! She never wavered in her trust in God to preserve us.

Jesus is the only Life-Preserver that is trustworthy.  There are many counterfeits but He is the only one that can take us safely through death and judgment, the last and final storm we all must face.

The terror is gone because we know we are safe in Jesus.

Isaiah 7:9 (NLT 1996)
“…You do not believe me? If you want me to protect you, learn to believe what I say.”

Isaiah 8:11-14a  (NLT 1996)
The Lord has said to me in the strongest terms: “Do not think like everyone else does. Do not be afraid that some plan conceived behind closed doors will be the end of you. Do not fear anything except the Lord Almighty.  He alone is the Holy One.  If you fear him, you need fear nothing else. He will keep you safe.”

In service, one recent Sunday night (9-21-08) two messages came forth from the Lord. They both had to do with faith.  This was the essence of the messagaes: Believe me..believe in Me…I will lead you along the path…you must trust me… 

As God’s children we sometimes have a problem with faith.  The Bible tells us that the spirit of God within us is greater than Satan that is in the world.  But our five senses continually pick up satanic messages telling us otherwise. When you stop and think about it, the strength of God’s Word against Satan’s lies is amazing!  In the face of all we are bombarded with, just one time of really connecting with God, changes our wavering faith into strong, great faith and we are able to continue to stand by God’s living power within us! 

To help us, the scriptures above let us know that we can “learn” to believe.  We know the verse “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God” Rom 8:17. Taking the measure of faith we already have, we hear God’s Word and our faith is strengthened.  But in the same chapter it says God’s people heard but didn’t welcome what they heard.  And the last verse of Rom Ch. 8 states: “All day long I opened my arms to them, but they were disobedient and rebellious.”

So when we hear/read the Word of God, we need to have our hearts prepared.  We can pray and ask God to help us receive, understand and obey His word.  It is amazing and faith strengthening to personally receive something from the word of God as while reading the Bible, then hear the same thing preached from the pulpit.  It confirms what God has been speaking to us is the same message He is speaking to the whole church. Exciting things happen when we take time to go toward God.

In our own power we cannot do and be all that God requires of us.  But by daily “going to God” in a hundred little ways He will teach and train us. His Spirit, the Word and the way He responds to our believing prayers  “opens our understanding” and strengthens us to do His will.

We can ’learn’ to trust Him…no matter what circumstances come our way and He will direct our paths!

I read an article on the Internet written by Suzi Toadvine. It was a good thought and I wanted to share it with you.  The “Flair” quote is one I will keep in my mind’s file to pull out and use when I am tempted to complain.  I hope you also will take the article to heart. It will better your life and the lives of those around you!

Read, enjoy and prayfully meditate on how God would have you apply this to your life.

…..Facebook offers an application called Flair which consists of buttons, much like what you would receive at a political rally, and the buttons have various comments on them, mostly humorous.  I saw a piece of flair that really grabbed my attention, and I thought about it for quite a while.  Now mind you, I rarely give Flair a second thought, but this one stuck in my mind for several days; and I pray that it stays there as a reminder of whom I want to be.  It simply states, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”  

           So many people are complaining these days….mostly about things that none of us have any control over . . . the price of gas, the stock market’s ups and downs, the political scene, taxes, their jobs. You name it.  While there are many things that most of us have little to no control over, there are a few things that we do have control over.  I am a loan officer for a bank, and I overheard some co-workers complaining the other day about the effect that the economy has had on our job situations.  Several were just unhappy in general.  The first thing that came to my mind was the little flair, and I thought, “how can I complain unless I have done absolutely everything in my power to make things better?”  Of course, I have no control on the economy or housing market; however, the thing I do have control over is myself and the way that I deal with the situation.  Am I looking for ways to achieve the change I want to see, or am I just going to continue to complain about it? Others complain about relationships and again, it is important to ask ourselves if we have done everything to help improve or work toward what we would like it to be.  Am I being the change I want to see?  Are you being the change you want to see? 

Everyone who has been changed by the saving grace of God has a story/testimoney to tell.  My husband and I travel from church to church and country to country doing the work of Missionary Envoy in Foreign Missions.  In doing so we have been privileged to hear testimonies and see glimpses of the awesome work of God’s Holy Spirit in people’s lives!  I want to start putting some of these true stories in print so they can be shared with others.  Testimonies are so powerful in uplifting our spirits toward our God and Saviour, Jesus Christ!

The one I now share with you was heard from a sister in the Lord named Hersy.

Years ago, Hersy lived on the Island of Chuuk, located in the Federated States of Micronesia.  I met her for the first time several years ago in Guam.  She still attends a United Pentecostal Church here.  (I am on the Island of Guam for a leadership seminar at this writing.)  She always had such a beautiful smile and a warm hug and handshake to offer me but it was only yesterday that her pastor asked her to share her testimony so we could all rejoice in God’s power and love shown in her life.  Because of the language barrier I am not sure of the time table involved in Hersy’s story but with the help of her pastor, pastor’s wife, and her husband, I know enough basic facts and details to understand the story of God’s delivering power in her life.

Hersy had been oppressed by a demonic spirit.  From time to time she would black out. When her senses would return people would tell her the horrible things she had done.  One thing that particularly frightened her was when she would hear them tell how she had chased people with a machete.  She had no control over when these incidents would occur and how long they would last.  In her heart she began to cry out to God to deliver her from this living nightmare.

In the mean time she had married a man named Kelep. He had not seen any of these terrible episodes with which his bride had been greatly troubled.

Kelep heard of a church nearby having services that were full of the power of God.  He wanted to take Hersy there and see what it was all about.  Her father told her not to go.  But she told him that she must follow her husband, she would go.

They both liked the first service, it seemed to be the right place to be.  The second or third visit they chose to be baptised in Jesus Name and Hersy was delivered from the demons that had tormented her mind for so long.  She received the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues just like those in the Bible in the second chapter of Acts!  She finally felt clean and had a peaceful mind and balanced emotions.  This life changing event took place in 1977. The feelings of torment and the frightening incidents of blacking out and being violent have never occurred since that time.  Praise the name of our God!

Hersy then proceeded to tell of another miracle that happened after that.  Her son Marvin was playing in the flood waters after a torrential rain, as ten year old boys are inclined to do.  To her horror he was suddenly swept away and washed down a large drainage opening in the street.  Hersy was frantic.  She had no phone and no one there to help her, but she knew she was not really alone.  She cried out to Jesus for help.  Hersey then ran to report what had happened.

The authorities began a search for her son in the sewer.  They were straining the water, looking for a drowned body but instead they found a live little boy that had survived going through two villages via sewer travel!  Blessed be the name of the Lord!  Much rejoicing was done as Sister Hersey and Brother Kalep received their child back, alive and well! 

These many years later as I listened to Hersey tell her story, it still brought tears of thanksgiving and joy coursing down her cheeks.  Her heart is so grateful for God’s continued intervention and love in her life.

This is just one of millions of testimonies of God’s delivering, saving power in the lives of those who take advantage of His offer of “whosoever will may come”. (Revelation 22:17)

I hope you enjoyed reading this testimony and that it will encourage you to tell the story of God’s love in your life.  Your story may or may not be as spectacular as Hersy’s, but one thing for certain, a life changed by the power of God’s forgiveness, baptism in the precious name of Jesus and the infilling of the Holy Ghost is always and forever a miracle of God’s unconditional love and saving grace! 

1 Corinthians 2:1 (King James Version)

And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.

We are so geared to live in the moment.  That is quite convenient for the enemy of our soul.  If he can make us think that nothing is more important than us being able to do what feels right, he can derail us from doing what’s important for Eternity.

Do you have a “whatever” attitude when it comes to the things of God?  It is a spirit that tries to attach itself to all of us at one time or another.  We can shake that attitude off in prayer and ask God to help us establish spiritual disciplines in our lives that will help us.

For instance, if you have trouble praying and reading the Bible in the morning before starting your day, go to bed ten minutes earlier and set your alarm to get up for ten minutes earlier to pray and read. Start doing something and go from there, but by all means, start!

One of the things that keep Christians from prayer is trying to go from where we are to where we think we should be.  God is more patient with us than we are with ourselves.  If we are faithful with our daily devotions, then we will eventually draw closer to God and desire more,  As that happens He will then help us do more.  But if we never learn to consistently pray and read God’s word, then we will be weak and frustrated in our walk with God. We can sincerely ask God to help us in this area of devotion to Him. He will hear and He will answer. 

As we have our daily devotions, let’s go beyond the “me, mine and ours” kind of prayer. May we learn to pray big prayers, prayers with eternal significance.  This is an excerpt from author Mike Macintosh’s book, Falling in Love with Prayer. “The Apostle Paul said: “If we have food and clothing, we will be content with that” (1 Tim. 6:8). In our society, with its wealth and free-enterprise system, we can work to obtain nearly anything. If the material world has a draw for us then we can work hard and accumulate all kinds of toys and luxuries.  But in societies with more oppressive forms of rule and less abundance, acquiring “goodies” is not even an option.  Christians in that kind of situation are free to pray because they love God, not because they view prayer as a catalog to present to the “great Santa Claus” in the sky.

The bottom line is this: Prayer really does pay off for us personally, but it depends largely on what payoff we are expecting.  If we are expecting a new car, a new house, a new wardrobe and other such new “stuff”, we may not get that kind of payoff.  But if we are expecting joy and contentment, we can count on those things.”

Personally, I have found prayer to be liberating, exhilarating, and tremendously adventurous!  Believe me, I didn’t start out feeling that way.  As a young woman, I desired to pray more because I honored God and I knew I should pray.  Just duty, period.  As I began my prayer journey the enemy of my soul attacked me from all sides.  I was quite unaware of the spiritual ramifications of prayer at this point.  I thought of myself as a little nobody.  Not realizing that as a child of God, His indwelling spirit within me was making the devil tremble. 

Satan made prayer seem unattainable, dark, dreary and hard.  What a difference in the way I feel about prayer now that I have broke through that erronious picture the enemy had painted for me!

When a person discovers first hand what prayer can do for the well being of their own mind, body and spirit and they experience their prayers making a difference in the lives of others and where they will spend Eternity…well, that changes everything, including the way you see prayer! 

Talking to God is not the chore it used to seem to be, it is a wonderful, intimate, loving, powerful, adventerous and necessary!

We have this express privilege, as a child of God, to influence eternity.  Through prayer we can help our family, friends and those we haven’t even met.  Prayers reach around our home, neighborhood, city, nation and the world.  They work now and will continue to work in the future. 

Prayer is amazing because we are communicating with our amazing, awesome, living God! 

Invest in prayer…the dividends are out of this world! 

I love you all and pray that all who read this will find a new and lasting adventure in prayer, in Jesus name!!

Everyone likes to win prizes.  It may be winning the drawing for a car because you were one who consented to wear your seatbelt, when driving, consistently for a year (my mother won a car back in the 60’s for doing that).  Or maybe you won a prize for entering the best pie at the fair.  We like to be the one who wins the prize and will do most anything to get it!

As Christians we sometimes get confused.  We put Christian disciplines in our lives to get a blessing or ‘the prize’.  That may work for a while.  But for living the abundant life God wants us to have we need to get established in our mind and heart one essential fact; He is the prize. 

When we get Jesus we get it all!  Every need will be supplied.  Unless we believe it and live our lives with Jesus as the prize, we will become weary and give up.  I have heard people say, “I just can’t do it anymore, I have tried.  It doesn’t work for me.”  

Are you feeling this way?  If so do a heart check.  Are you doing things for God so He will give you something…a blessing of finance, a spouse, a child.  God loves to give good gifts to His children so I have no doubt that if what you desire is His will, He will give it to you.

I firmly believe that we have got to come to the place where we make up our minds that we will serve God faithfully for the rest of our lives whether we get what we what or not.  There is freedom in this.  We are then free from the bondage of always waiting for the prize to come.  We can enjoy God for who He is. 

Jesus tells us in His Word that we are complete in Him.  This is a great comfort and removes fear. If everything we know and love is stripped from us, we still have The Prize.  Will there be pain?  Most certainly!  But He will keep us safe and sane.  No man can take us out of His Might Hand. 

I have looked at my own experiences and also at the experiences of others who are Christians.  The ones who make changes in their lifestyles strictly for other people are miserable and eventually go back to the way they were or worse.  Granted, it’s good to have people around to help give you the boost needed to make positive changes. But your motivation should be to do the will of God. 

I remember when I went away to Bible College I made some lifestyle changes because they were the rules.  But I was aware of those rules before I went. That was one of the main reasons I chose to attend that specific place of learning.  I felt I wasn’t strong enough to make the changes I desired to make while being around the same people I had always lived around.  I went, made those changes, and have never turned back to my old ways. A friend of mine, on the other hand, made some of the same changes I did but for a different reason.  A single minister came through. He told her he would like to date her but she would need to make some changes first.  She took him up on it.  She married him but unfortunately the changes didn’t last.

 Philippians 6-7 (The Message)Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

The King James Version puts is like this: 6Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Sometimes that peace seems unattainable.  I remember a time in my life where I was desperate for peace in my mind.  I was a very young pastor’s wife and mother and I was plagued with thoughts of worry, about anything and everything…real or imagined. Doubt, foul language and blasphemies, things I despised and had never practiced bombarded my mind.  I struggled with all this for a couple of years, I just “knew” that God had left me because I was such a terrible person.  I felt like a line in the verse of an old hymn, “…a sinner far from Jesus perishing with cold…”  And just as the hymn doesn’t end that way, neither did my life.  “But the Blessed Savior heard me when I cried.  He put His arms around me as He brought me to the fold now I’m living on the Hallelujah side!” 

For prayer and meditation:  1 Cor. 13:4-7 (NLT) 

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

I’ve been meditating on this passage of scripture. I tend to spiritualize this somehow but not put it into practice in everyday relationships.  I must remind myself this concept applies to the way I treat family, friends, church family and people in general as I go through life.  In fact it even applies to my enemies!

There is a prevailing thought that love comes easy when really the words, love and easy, cannot cohabit.  There is nothing easy about true love.  We cannot love by emotions or trying harder. We’ve got to let God do a work in us…a continuing work, from the inside out…God’s Spirit doing the loving through us, overriding our human-ness.

I am praying for God to do this work in me, in you and in all of His children.  Desire is the key, He will do the rest…if we ask with a believing heart.  God is love and will take us on a “love journey” to teach us what it is to really love someone…Happy Travels!

Wow!  I just had another one of those Aha! moments.  (I say “another”, because I also had one of those moments last Wednesday night during Bible Study as the Pastor was teaching.  If you miss Bible Study night,you miss a lot!)

You know the feeling of Aha!…the dawning of truth, a revelation hits your mind when you are not expecting it.  It’s a sensation like when a curtain suddenly opens and a beautiful truth, like a breathtaking landscape, is laid out before you!

 This time it happened as I was listening to the Adult Bible lesson Sunday morning in church.  It was part of a series being taught on “Creation”.  At one point in the lesson Pastor brought out that God created everything, including the angels.  The scriptures about Lucifer, son of the morning, were read depicting how beautiful and powerful he was until…there’s that word “until”, it’s the point where something changes.  And something did change, and change drastically!

Lucifer let pride come in and take control, he was most the beautiful angel and had been granted a lot of power.  His beauty became his god and he decided he could be God.  God is not plural.  There is only one God.  So there was war in the heavenlies. One third of the angels fought alongside Lucifer.  Of course, God and His angels won and God cast Lucifer, and the angels who fought with him, out of heaven.  Lucifer is now commonly called the devil.

So, you wonder… what is the Aha! moment?  I was thinking…people seem more possessed than ever about being beautiful.  Just think about the fashion magazines, the botox movement, plastic surgery…are you getting that Aha! feeling yet?  There is more than marketing, money and coincidence behind it all.  There is a spirit pushing it.  The same spirit that Lucifer fathered in Heaven is the same spirit trying to push pride on all of us.  The world is embracing and flaunting this destructive lifestyle of bondage. The devil is trying to trap even our young children, with the media in the lead, through constant pressure from every side.

I pray God will keep us all from falling into this trap.  I am praying especially for children and teens.  There is so much freedom in Christ, I want this freedom for them.  God has not called us to bondage.  It is bondage to feel like you have to follow the latest fashion fad, have flawless skin and be skinny to be accepted.  Because the great majority of people can’t live up to that, it fosters low self-esteem (which is simply pride turned inside-out…my definition) and a feeling of being left out if you do not look like the latest idol. (Last time I checked we weren’t supposed to look at or follow idols…!)

Let’s shake ourselves and take a look, not at ourselves but at the great, awesome God we serve!  Freedom is when we find our worth in Jesus Christ.  Then we are totally free from the bondage of this world and nothing can shake us. 

True freedom, by the way, is not doing everything we want to do.  It is not having to follow what this flesh begs to do but being able instead, to follow the Spirit of God!

That’s walking in the Spirit. That’s true freedom!

I thank the Lord for my Aha! moments!  Have you had one lately?  If so share it and encourage someone in the Lord. 

Check out Romans 8…it’s a great read!