There are times when I’ve experienced people who clearly do not know, believe, or serve God. My desire for them to be better messes with my mind! Do I want to walk with them to a right path? Do I want to destroy them? Do I want to separate myself from them? Makes me wonder .. what do others, in the Body of Christ, think of me when I blunder in my walk? Do they walk with me, leading me to the right path? Do they want to end my ministry life? Do they want to cut off all contact with me?
What I know for sure, is that the Almighty God knows me. He knows when I’m weak and when I fall off track. He never walks away from me — not even for one moment. He opens my eyes to see where I stepped onto the wrong path and He roots it out of me! And the beautiful part is that He makes my heart long for Him … long for my life, my words, my thought, my actions – to please and glorify Him.
One of the things I thank God for, as a mom, is His way of correction. I try to do it the way He does it. With my sons, every lesson ever taught was directly from the Word of God. (Yes! They sometimes got a spanking!) If they lied … they were talked to from Colossians 3; Exodus 20, etc.; If disobedient – Ephesians 6:1; John 15, etc.; If angry or annoyed … Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 3:12-14. They were talked to and then fervently prayed for. The wonderful view later was that they became men who have no desire to live in a way that is apart from Him and they’ve learned that any mistakes will be forgiven and washed away.
God knows me – He knows us all – from the inside out, and can/will cleanse and change us for the sake of His Kingdom.
Praying that for each of His children, for my brothers and sister in Christ all over the globe, that we will go to Him sincerely asking to be corrected – ensuring that we will have everlasting joy! Praying that as I see the lost, the disobedient believer, or even the confused person – that I will have the humility to teach the Word, to pray sincerely for them, to walk with them down the path to The One that knows us all from the inside out.
If at any time you’re not quite sure whether you can be free of wrong behavior, wrong choices, wrong thoughts … trust me, it is right there in the Word of God. Just take a look! It’s in there …
When we take the wings of the morning – or dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea … even then we will find Him there! Our God! The Omnipresent God! And our souls shall hide in Him!
I was watching one of the awards shows and it amazed me to hear a few of them who have said that they are believers in Christ say that the glory belongs to God. Well, I could start off saying that they were dressed half naked and using profanity at the same time … but let me move on. Looking at them reminded me that all of us who say we are believers in the Almighty God are surrounded in this earthly realm with many who do not really believe. Because we are in a realm where it is believed that saying “God” is powerful enough, we can be lulled into a sense of complacency. We sometimes are led to believe that all we have to do is call upon the name of Jesus, and all will be well … forgetting that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the base of all that we say that we are. Christ’s death and His resurrection is the base of Christianity; without this base our hopes are no more!
Allowing the world system to step into our minds and hearts will leave us thinking that it doesn’t matter what other people believe AND that it is not our business to ‘push Christ on them’! But if we believe, REALLY believe, that Christ is who He says He is and who God says He is; that He died and was raised to the end that our victory has been secured, then we must also know that there is no more worthy thing we can do but work fervently, passionately and full throttle for His Kingdom!
We cannot merely accept the idea of His resurrection – we have to let it become a heart belief!
If you really believe in the power of His resurrection – don’t waver; don’t be discouraged … work passionately for the Kingdom of God, Our Father!
Unless you believed in vain … be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil (labor) is not in vain in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 15:2,58
Father, please help me to go hard after the things that build Your Kingdom. Help me to love so that people are drawn to You. Help me to be bold about the ONLY truth. Help me to remember at what price You secured me for Your own purposes. And let me not be weary in well doing! Amen
Many find comfort in these words – but for me, they can cause angst. It’s the word “let” that causes problems for me. I mean, what am I supposed to do when the trials and problems of life really do give me pause or cause me to have fear?
I know – I know – I know what you Christian folk are saying, “Jan! take the thought captive, bring the thought into submission with the will of God!” Trust me – I KNOW!! But that word “let” still gives me a lump in my throat.
I joyfully minister to many. There are issues where the money is just not nearly enough to meet the obligation. There are issues where the illness cannot be defeated. Marriages that are dying. Loss of loved ones that cause family issues in the midst of grief. OR – Maybe your life is on course and you are not only joyful but prosperous. That is what I tell myself when I encounter people who tell me not to allow myself to worry. I say to myself that they have no idea what it is like to be in my shoes! What about you!?
Well, I Thank God for His Word! These words were spoken by the very Son of God, and knowing that Jesus said the words tells me that it really is possible for me to disallow my heart from fainting at the first sign of trouble.
I go on to read Christ’s words in Matthew 24 as he describes the perilous times the world will face but he reminds those that follow Him that they are not alone. And then I remember that the Word of God gave me another “let” that gives me power and strength – “Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5)– and as I continue to read His Word and allow Him to speak to me I am reminded that if I have the mind of Christ I cannot be troubled for it is against the mind of Christ for me to have a troubled heart or mind even when all around me seems full of trouble. Then I remember that He also told me that if I could only remember at all times that He has already overcome the world – I will know that I too will overcome.
Now, let me say that my heart began to feel lighter and the lump in my throat was less uncomfortable. Let me also be clear that though my situation may not have changed – I am hopeful, truly, that He desires to, and will indeed, work it all out for my good and for His glory. So today, you know – later on after I start thinking about my trouble again – the moment it seems that my heart just might faint, I will not let my heartbe troubled, instead I will start singing, clapping, dancing and praising Him in advance of my deliverance! As I praise – it will lift my heart from trouble to a place of triumph and I will not be able to stop myself from rejoicing.
Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled! As my mama always told me, “Just trust in the Good Lord!”
In ministry life, there are times when we witness the prosperity or success of people who call themselves by His name, but truly act in ways that disobey His Word. I admit that in my own heart, I sometimes develop within me a desire to ‘bring them down to size‘. For those of us in ministry, se forget that just as we say that some people don’t know the devil is using them – the same applies to the fact that some people don’t know that God is using them and many don’t see God’s hand upon them or His guidance of their actions and even their words.
In God’s Word, the Assyrians destroy many and they believe that it is their will and power; not knowing that God was using them to do his bidding — and in the end the Assyrians too are destroyed.
As believers, we’ve got to learn daily to rely upon, and trust in, the truth that vengeance belongs to the Lord. Yes! He will pay! Y’all we need to be careful to remind ourselves that He sees the deeds of the wicked and has the plan AND the power to bring them down low.
My prayer for us is that as we seem to continually find ourselves int eh sights of the wicked in the midst of committed ministry work, we will thank Him for the reminder that He sees the wicked and will repay for all disobedience to His Word. The disobedience to His word will be punished by Him. I truly do pay that He will have mercy upon them! His peace is upon my heart and in my mind. I am praying for His help to rest in the truth of his recompense and in the shadow of His wings.
God can use the godless to destroy the godless; and thinking that they operate by their own power – they will do it whole heartedly.
“I am ready to go to heaven, but I’m not in a hurry.”
My mom said this often. In fact, very often. As I’ve told people of her death, that is the first thing they say, “Miss Mary said she wanted to get on up to heaven, but she wasn’t in a hurry.”
My mom never meant, I want to die, she was ministering to people that there was no such thing as a life that ended, not as a believer in Christ. Her meaning was that people of Christ needed to understand that their lives did not end on what is called a death bed … their lives just never ended at all, but rather entered into the eternal life in heaven. She wanted the lost to know that just having the word heaven in their vocabulary was not going to get them there … only Jesus!
She Loved The Lord!!! She Served Him Always!! She taught us to love and to serve. She taught us to take the hits. She showed us what a good wife was – adored our father and served & supported him deeply.
My mom married my father when she was 17 years old. When he passed away they had been together for 65 years! 65 years and they were still best friends. She gave birth to my sisters and I and she was a good mom who loved us well. Her dear love was for her grand children – she had longed for them and was delighted when she got them.
She gave herself away to many elderly people who had no family. She cooked for them; cleaned for them; took care of their medical needs; loved them and so much more. And doing all of this, she was not a housewife. She worked, she took care of her family & home, she served her local church, she served the national Baptist convention … and it did not stop her from serving anyone!
She lived 92 years and was healthy every single day. I mean my mother was still cutting her own lawn, trimming her shrubs, growing vegetables in her backyard, and so much more. Because of reasons we cannot yet understand, my mother had a brain bleeding stroke. It was Mother’s Day Weekend (Friday May 8, 2020). Completely unexpected. She stayed alive for 10 weeks – a beautiful gift to our family. Time to take care of her in complete love. Time for her to see her three girls together in unity. Time to show her that we were okay. Time to show us that we needed to believe all that we had been taught about eternal life. July 15th we saw a last breath and on July 16th the heart stopped … she left us and went to Him.
What we know as a family is that this date was written in the books of Our Heavenly Father. His Word tells us that everybody has to die once. (Hebrews 9:27). Another great truth for us is the truth about death – it doesn’t mean that our lives stop, it means that our flesh life is separated from our spirit life … soul separated from body. We know with no doubt at all that our soul is who we really are and that this physical body is just what holds us until we get home to Him.
For my mother, I am truly rejoicing that she’s escaped timing and entered into an eternal destiny with the God in whom she believed completely! One of the most wonderful things that night was that she was smiling … the word of God does tell us that God’s children have angels assigned to them; and one of the jobs of those angels is to escort our souls into the Kingdom of God – well, it surely looked to us like her angel was right there. She hadn’t been able to smile since the stroke, not even once! But at that moment, when she was entering into her new life – a smile came upon her face. That is just another beautiful vision for our minds and hearts.
Oh Bright Glory! If we miss my mom from smiling, serving, counseling, encouraging, loving down here … we need know that she is up in bright glory. Absent from the body, present with The Lord!
I’m truly going to miss my mama …
An Invitation to Believe in a Truth that is REAL
If you have never believed in Christ, let me just tell you for sure that there’s a beautiful life that you can have on this earth if you believe! Peace on the inside comes! Perseverance in difficulty comes! Freedom from any addiction comes! A true relationship with Almighty God comes! A life that never ends comes! If you want to receive Him, you’ve got to believe in Him.
We need salvation! We all have sinned and are not worthy of His presence and that sin will send us into true death, while belief in Christ will give us life that is eternal!
God gives us salvation! He sent the only son He has to a place of severe discipline, and this Son – whose name is Jesus – took the hit and paid to God what our sin caused us to owe.
Receive what He has given! Believe in Jesus Christ, believe in the truth that He took the hit for all of your wrongdoing to bring you into the right relationship with God. Call His name and tell Him that you believe.
If you truly believe I’m telling you that you will have peace in your heart that you cannot even explain. I’m telling you that you have now been reconciled to a good relationship with God – The Father, The Creator, The Almighty One.
If you’ve come to Christ as you read these words, connect with a group of people near you who are believers, profess your belief and be taught. Find a group near so that you can truly keep your connection real. Need help finding a place to know Him better? Email me, I’ll gladly help you.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.--Romans 8:38-39
