Instead of letting our thoughts take us captive…
For the weapons of our
warfare are not of the flesh
but have divine power to
destroy strongholds. We
destroy arguments and every
lofty opinion raised against
the knowledge of God, and
take every thought captive to
obey Christ.
2 Cor. 10-4-5
“Now the Lord is the Spirit,
and where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is freedom.”
2 Corinthians 3:17
God, in His grace and mercy, put in the hearts of men and women to establish a nation that would be free to worship Him without outside influence.
Free to believe in the one, true God, free to follow Him, free to call on Him, free to have and read His Word, free to gather together in His name, free to obey Him rather than our sinful nature, and free to tell the world the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
It would seem we’re at a crossroads in our country right now. Sin abounds because the Spirit doesn’t.
But there is hope.
There is anger and violence in the streets.
But where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
Bitterness and unforgiveness grows.
But where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
Sin and lawlessness spread.
But where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
The world doesn’t need more fun programs, or coffee shops, or topical, feel-good messages, or a weakened, compromised, watered-down version of the Word of God so no one’s offended.
It needs the power of the Spirit of the Lord, and by Him to know Christ and the freedoms He gives.
It needs us to put away the old self and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
It needs us to stop being influenced by the world so we can influence it for Christ.
It needs us to walk in newness of life, a life of obedience to Christ, so we don’t grieve the Holy Spirit, and instead be filled with Him.
And by the power of the Spirit of the Lord in us it needs to hear that Christ loves them so much that He died for them to forgive them of their sins, to restore their relationship to God, to give them a new heart and a new mind, and to fill their hearts with love and peace and forgiveness.
It needs to hear that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:13
“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent?” Romans 10:15
God gave us a land with freedoms to give the chance for every heart to be free. But so many hearts are painfully held captive to sin, and the enemy is having a field day.
I believe God is calling His children, for whatever time we have left, to boldly speak His name, and in His Spirit, free as many of those captive souls as possible, so they, too, can be filled with the Spirit and true freedom.
And we are here now for such a time as this.
“Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:14-15
Oh Father, forgive us for allowing the comforts of the world make us complacent. Please forgive us for any sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Fill us with your Spirit and give us a heart of love for the lost and a vision of how you would have each of us reach the world around us. Whatever you have us do, may we be careful to continue to do it in the strength of your Spirit and not in our own. Thank you for this unique nation you’ve given us, where we’ve been afforded so many freedoms, freedoms we have largely taken for granted. And thank for the freedoms you’ve given us in Christ, to love you, to serve you, to carry out the good works you’ve prepared for us to do, and to know that someday we’ll live with you forever. In Jesus’s name we pray, amen.
A lot of Christians have given up on church. Many have been hurt by the church; many feel like it’s a waste of time, that they’re not learning anything anyway; and many believe their faith is strictly between them and God so they don’t need church.
I get it. I get all of those.
And I’ve read a lot of reasons why we should go to church.
But I want to tell you why we must go. Why we need to go.
When I read in Isaiah 53 that the Messiah, the Christ, the Savior of the world, Jesus, is “despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” I understand. Granted, to a far lesser degree, but I understand living a life like that. I fully understand living a life of rejection and sorrow, and I understand grief being a very close acquaintance.
By the time I came to know Jesus as my Savior when I was 26, I had already lived a lifetime, a very long and painful one. I knew Grief better than anything else, including love.
And for the next 14 years after I was saved and going to church, I knew God loved me, but God knew much of that was head knowledge. He knew Grief was still a closer acquaintance. And, oddly enough, He was about to increase the pain.
And yes, I know that doesn’t sound very appealing, but His plan was something far greater than I could have anticipated.
So for the next 15 years, through sickness and so many things that can come with it, I became even more acquainted with Grief, yet, at the same time more acquainted with the God of love in that grief.
Because that description of the Savior in Isaiah is not of a God in the heavens, far-removed or oblivious to our human suffering. He is not a God who is unfeeling or detached. In fact, the letter to the Hebrews tells us that “we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)
This is a God-Man who understands my pain.
He is a God who is “near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit.” (Psalm 34:18)
That word contrite means “crushed (literally powder, or figuratively contrite): – contrite, destruction.” And the root word of contrite is daka which means “to crumble; to bruise, to beat to pieces, break in pieces, destroy, humble, oppress, smite.”
Brokenhearted. Reduced to powder. Crumbled, bruised, beaten to pieces. Yeah, I understand that. Maybe you do, too. But in my brokenness God was closer to me than I could have imagined. He was faithful to not only keep my faith in tact, but to grow it.
Still, during this 15 year period, being attacked from within and without, with no understandable cause or reason, led me to desperately need to feel God’s love. I needed it to move that impossibly long distance from my head to my heart. I needed it to become my beloved companion in place of the old acquaintance.
Since salvation I’d settled for the belief that love was as close to me as it would ever get, and knowing Christ as my Savior, it was indeed closer than it ever was before. I had been content with the head knowledge, but the increased pain and suffering meant the head knowledge wasn’t enough anymore. I needed to feel God’s love.
So I began to pray just that – that God would let me feel His love. It wasn’t just a desire or a hope, but a need. I needed His love to survive. I needed Love to knock grief to the ground and live with me as my constant, Beloved Companion.
I prayed and prayed that prayer over the course of several months.
And gradually God began to lay on my heart “…if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36) More and more those words filled my mind, and honestly, I didn’t connect them with my prayer at all. I believed God was going to do something, but I thought maybe it had to do with a family member or a friend.
During this same time I started going to a women’s Bible study at our church. I hadn’t been to one in years and I was excited to connect with women over the study of God’s Word again.
After every Bible study I’d drive home and catch myself smiling and full of joy. These women were so kind, so loving and accepting, and they had no idea they were being used by God to answer my prayers. They just loved Jesus and because of that, they loved me.
And then one day, as I stood there talking and waiting for the study to start, two of the women walked in with bunch of flowers for my birthday, and the group sang Happy Birthday. That was the day grief (and his buddies rejection and sorrow) took a backseat to Love.
God did a miraculous work of forgiveness in my heart, and suddenly the past was in the past. Both my mind and my heart were renewed, and I felt like a new, new creation.
Jesus used those precious women to show me how much He loved me, and bring to life in my heart those words “…if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” And so I was.
That is why the letter to the Hebrews goes on to exhort all of us “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)
God has built into us a need to gather together with other believers to meet spiritual needs. That’s the way He’s chosen to operate in and through our lives. But when we don’t fulfill that need in the highest, God-given way, we find a million other counterfeit ways of trying to fill that need to meet together as friends, even as friends close enough to consider themselves family – social media, causes, clubs, bars, stadiums, gangs. But they will always leave us unsatisfied and unfulfilled.
We need each other. But we need to feed our souls and our faith, not just our flesh. We need a setting with other Jesus-loving, Spirit-filled believers, our family in the faith, to love us (and us, them), to encourage one another in our daily walks with Christ, to keep us focused and moving into an even deeper walk with Him, the Savior of our souls, the one who understands our pain, and is there again and again to rescue us, to heal us, even more than we can imagine. And with our ever-renewing hearts, glorify Him with the good works He’s prepared for us to do. And the darker it gets out there, the more we need it.
Now, does that mean my life is perfect? No. Grief doesn’t like to be knocked down, and when it’s found a comfy place to live for a long time it doesn’t give up that place easily (and satan doesn’t like it a whole lot either).
It tries to get up, again and again, and that’s why I need to keep going back, to be surrounded by my brothers and sisters in Christ, and encourage one another in love so we can then take that love on the road with good deeds, like my Jesus-loving friends did. Their love and good deeds in Christ changed a life, glorifying Him, and that’s what this life is all about.
And yes, I know it’s not always easy to find a Spirit-filled, Bible-believing/teaching church. Political correctness and a desire to be liked, among other things, don’t stop at the front door of every church.
Just pray. God knows your heart and He will answer your prayers for a body of believers who worship in Spirit and in Truth, a body that will accept you in the love of Christ.
Don’t give up. We need you.
* * *
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the body of Christ, the family you’ve given us where your love and joy can come alive, where we can join hearts and worship you in spirit and in truth. I pray for each person reading this. For those who need a good spiritual home, I pray you would lead them to one. I pray you would remove any fears, grant forgiveness for past pains, and help them to step out in faith. For those who have one, I pray you would use them in the church homes you’ve placed them to show your love in tangible, Christ-honoring ways. For churches who may be a little stuffy and not used to acts of love, oh Lord, may you fill them with your Spirit, and lead them to a better way, where giving and receiving your love is as common as breathing. May you bring revival in the Body, and throughout the world. In Jesus’ holy and precious name I pray, amen.
My dad felt like he was living on borrowed time. His dad and his oldest brother died in their early 50s, so every day he made it past that I think he felt was a gift.
The reality is we’re all living on borrowed time. Gifted time. Each day we have to love, to give, to learn, to grow, to prepare, is a gift given to us by God.
So what are we doing with our gift? Shoving it in a corner? Kicking it around?
Or embracing it, valuing it, and using to its greatest potential?
I recently watched an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond. The one where Marie takes them all on a trip to Italy. Everybody is soaking in the beauty and joy of the experience, except Ray. He doesn’t get it and he complains throughout the entire trip, until near the very end.
He stopped complaining and started looking around. He noticed the beauty of the landscape, the culture, the people, and his perspective changed.
He fell in love with everybody and everything, hopped on a bike and did his level best to soak up and spread as much beauty and joy as he could before it was time to go.
And I thought about how sometimes that is our life, especially when our outlook has been skewed by pain and suffering. Our perspective is dirtied from the trials and we can go through life not getting it. I think far too many people do that, even Christians, and that’s a tragedy.
We who have been changed, who have been given new life and made into a new creation have the opportunity to have a new perspective. Sometimes it takes some time, and always some forgiveness, for our hearts and perspectives to be cleansed and made whole so we can fully see the beauty that’s all around us.
But every day we wake up we can ask God to purify our hearts, give us His perspective and start living our lives in Him now so we don’t wait until the end of our trip to get it. To start soaking up and spreading the beauty, love, and joy that God surrounds us with every day.
Sometimes I think of myself in my last days, and wonder what I’ll think of. What will I wish I had done? Who do I wish I’d been? If I keep living the way I am, will I be happy that I lived that way? Is there anything I wish I’d done differently? What do I hope people thought of me and say about me? Will I have made an impact for good?
Will I have carried out God’s plan for my life? Will I have lived in service to Him, carrying out the greatest command to love Him with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my mind and with all my strength? And will I have loved my neighbor as myself?
None of us is promised tomorrow. But we do have today.
And every day we have a choice.
The world is more than happy to sweep us up with it in its hurried, materialistic, unforgiving, angry, joyless way. That way is easy. Just stand there and it will take you with it.
Or, we can choose to take the narrow road – the one Christ walks. Few take it because He’s on it and instead of doing our thing, being our own god, we must follow Him, and to some that seems restrictive.
And in a way it is, cause here’s the kicker: Jesus said to walk that road we must carry a cross. He said each person must
“deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
For whoever wants to save their life will lose it,
but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”
And He goes on to elaborate:
“What good will it be for someone to
gain the whole world,
yet forfeit their soul?”
Why do we have to deny ourselves? Because in our flesh dwells no good thing. Only in dying to our flesh and letting Christ live His life through us is there true life and freedom.
That narrow road of cross-carrying and self-denying opens to freedom from sin and its regrets, from shame and guilt, to fullness of joy and love and purpose.
That narrow road is where life is.
And we never walk it alone. The resurrection power of the Holy Spirit is with us, upon us, and dwells within us to forgive, cleanse, and lead us on in our walk, no matter where it goes. And ultimately, of course, it leads to eternity, where we won’t be judged for our sins (as long as we’ve believed in Christ as Lord), but we will be rewarded according to what we have done.
“Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.”
Ephesians 5:15-16
“I’m telling you it goes by fast. If you don’t give it your all you’re going to regret it.”
~Kobe Bryant
If you want to know how to get on that road of following Christ, or have any questions, please feel free to leave me a comment or email me by clicking on the post card to the right. 
You get on a plane bound for Paris. Your future spouse is waiting, along with your wedding party, your officiant, and all your guests. You fly for what feels like forever and finally land, only to find out you’re in Belgium instead.
Now, Belgium is nice, but it’s not Paris, and it’s not what you planned. The pilot profusely apologizes when he realizes he’d set his course one degree off. One degree? How could one degree cause such a mess?
God told Adam “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 2:16-17
Enter the serpent. The master of “It’s only one degree…”
He says to Eve,“Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?'” Genesis 3:1
Already he’s begun planting doubt and confusion in her mind. “Wait, did God say that…?” And she replies,“We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden(so far so good), and you must not touch it, or you will die.”
Uh oh. One degree off.
The serpent retorts,“You will not certainly die. For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Funny how satan always makes it seem like we’re missing out on something when in reality he is enslaving us.
Of course we know the rest of the story. Eve goes one degree off by adding something God did not say (“you must not touch it”) and she’s suddenly off course. Then, as she’s off the path God plotted for her, her pride takes her another degree by doubting God’s motive, and then another by coveting, and she walks over to the tree, plucks the juicy fruit, and takes a bite.
She hands it to her husband, he shrugs his shoulders (conveniently forgetting what God had told him), and he takes a bite, too.
And suddenly sin enters the world. And the story continues to this very day, and the world is a million miles off from what God desired.
Yes, we have Christ and the cross, and anyone who puts their faith in Him is forgiven of all their sin. Jesus Christ has defeated the enemy and through Him we have victory over sin and death.
Still, the battle is not over. The war of degrees continues, and we are warned “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8
Jesus may have won our souls, but satan’s looking to swallow our lives, our service to the Lord, and our witness to the world. And he does it one degree at a time.
“Did God really say…not to eat that, not to drink that, not to watch that, not to read that, not to smoke that, not to go there, not to do that? Everybody else is doing it. Your friend is doing it and see what a great person he is? Your Christian friend posted it and it sounds inspirational. Yeah, that’s not what the Bible says, but it’s the 21st century. Your pastor is reading it. It’s a Christian book, right? So what about the parts that aren’t exactly scriptural. It doesn’t matter.”
One degree. And then another, and another.
Just a meme. Just a book. Just a movie. Just a piece of fruit.
Discernment gets walked out of the cabin and relegated to the backseat. We base beliefs on who is saying it, rather than on what is said. On its popularity, rather than God’s Word. On our political affiliation, rather than our position in Jesus Christ.
We adopt beliefs because they sound good, and though they may be part truth, they may also be part untruth – just one degree off – and we adopt the belief, mixing it with some truth, and then other untruths we are bombarded with from the world are built on that, decisions are made based on those unscriptural beliefs, and soon we look back and around, and we’re lost. We’re far from God, and the lion is crouching in the bushes, stealing God’s plans and replacing them with needless pain and suffering.
Maybe the question we all need to ask ourselves is – who is my pilot? Me or God? My feelings or God? The world or God?
He will never lead us off course. Yet when we find ourselves off the path, with Him, through Christ, there is an abundance of mercy and forgiveness. We are always one prayer of repentance away from being whisked back to God’s side, walking with the Spirit again.
There may be consequences of our sin, though, which is why God lovingly warns us to always be alert and of sober mind. Let us “resist {the devil}, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” 1 Peter 5:9
We’re all in the same boat, or plane, in keeping with my original analogy. We need each other’s prayers and encouragement and strength as we walk this walk, and we can only do that as long as we’re walking next to our Lord, and not off eating fruit that’s bad for us.
God’s given us an entire garden of life-giving fruit. Let us revel in His provision, stay on course, walk with Him and do His will, and remember that one day we will see “Paris” – the great place of the marriage of the Lamb and His Bride.
“Hallelujah!
For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and be glad
and give Him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
and His bride has made herself ready.
Fine linen, bright and clean,
was given her to wear.
(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)”
Revelation 19:6-8
The following is an update on my mother and her life since I wrote my original testimony.
***
There are lyrics that sometimes come to mind when I think of my mother – “I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger…”
My mother tried to maintain some sense of normalcy in my early childhood. I see pictures of her looking radiant and beautiful on their wedding day, and she worked with the Phoenix Mountains Preservation Council and led our Girl Scout troop.
At the same time she looked like an active, productive woman, wife, and mother, she was also playing with ouija boards, tarot cards, and seeing things none of the rest of us saw. Her mind and personality began to change, or perhaps be revealed. At some point her health began to decline, and her past collided with the spiritual darkness she dabbled in, and it all came back to haunt her, and all of us.
As a child, though, all I knew was my mother didn’t love me. By the time I was 17 and left home at her request, irreversible damage had been done to our whole family.
After I was saved several years later, I tried desperately to have some kind of relationship with her. I prayed for her salvation. I invited her to church and to a women’s retreat. But it always went horribly, painfully wrong. And I knew if I was ever going to have a chance to heal, I was going to have to let go of my desire to have a relationship with my mother. That dream would have to remain a dream. And so it was.
My mother had always agonized over tragedies she’d endured as a child, a teenager, and a young adult, but it was not that long ago that one of her sisters told me that as a child my mother had once purposely jumped in front of car. Something had been wrong for a long time, maybe from the womb. I do know she held a lot of pain inside her mind and heart.
The longer I lived the more I came to understand the effect all that pain could have on a person, especially when that person doesn’t know Christ. And the more I walked with Christ, the more He gave me the ability to forgive her. And the more I was able to forgive her, and He began to heal my own mind and heart and fill them with His grace and mercy, the more empathy I had for my mother.
Then one early morning I got a call from my sister saying our mother’s health was severely declining, that she probably wouldn’t be with us much longer, and did I want to go see her? I opened God’s Word and prayed about it over the next hour or so, asking Him to speak to my heart and show me what to do. His still, small voice prompted me to go. 
We visited her in the assisted living place she now called home. I sat on her bed in front of her with my new mind and new heart, and told her I loved her. She laid there and looked me in the eyes with a slight smile on her face. What little she did try to say my sister had to interpret. I held her hand and we just looked at each other. She wasn’t throwing things, screaming, or calling me names. She was looking at me with love in her eyes. We were able to communicate a bit, and had a picture taken of the three of us. That day was the only good memory I have of my mother, and I am grateful the Lord allowed me to have it.
Though in the past she’d claimed to be a Christian, I never saw any fruit of it, so I continued to pray the Lord would have mercy on her. He knew the truth, whether she had ever been converted or not, and I trusted Him to do what needed to be done for the salvation of her soul.
I was able to make a couple more trips to see her, once while her eyes were still open, and again after she’d slipped into unconsciousness. Still, I knew my God wasn’t limited to our state of awareness of this world, and I continued to pray. I prayed the Lord would not let her go until she had received Him as Lord and Savior and was filled with the redeeming, sealing, promised Holy Spirit.
The nurses said she didn’t have much longer, yet she continued to live, and I continued to pray. A trained hospice worker said she probably wouldn’t live more than 24 hours, yet she continued to live, and I continued to pray. Wherever her mind and heart were in this state, Jesus was there. And maybe He had her attention more during that time than ever before. Over the next week I kept praying for mercy, for grace, and for saving faith to fill her. And then one day, she was gone.
Only God knows what happened in those twilight hours, but I am trusting He heard my prayers.
And I am trusting that one day we will all be together again, perfected in Christ and filled with love for one another the way we were always meant to be, basking in the joy of Christ forever and ever.
For His Glory,
I thought I’d write an update about what God did for each of my parents in the years since I wrote my testimony. I’ll start with my dad.
***
My dad wasn’t sick a day in his life. Well, not in the physical sense. I don’t remember him ever having a cold or a stomach bug. Nothing. But there was something hidden deep inside him, something even he would later be hard-pressed to articulate, that made him turn to alcohol. I do know that he had a quiet, expressive soul, and that combination is a hard one to deal with.
Most days of my childhood I could smell the alcohol on him, except for the days he didn’t come home. Still, he was kind and willing to listen when I needed someone to talk to.
I left home a month or two after high school graduation. The next time I saw my dad a couple of months later he had aged more than I thought he should have. After that I didn’t see much of my parents for a number of years until after their divorce, and I was able to talk to my dad again.
When I became a Christian, I wanted more than anything for my family members to be saved and our family restored. I thought about it, I hoped for it, I prayed about it.
Sometime while I was away, my dad quit drinking. He’d had an experience that frightened him and made him stop. So without the alcohol, and without my mother, we were able to reconnect.
Both of us being chatterboxes, we’d talk on the phone for long stretches at a time. We’d theorize and philosophize about everything under the sun. And every now and then I’d try to work into the conversation my very favorite topic – Jesus.
My dad would be struggling with something and I’d tell him about the One who knows how to untangle life’s messes. He’d be hard-pressed to understand something else and I’d tell him about the One who gives peace.
I ‘d talk to him about salvation, I wrote him long notes explaining the way to salvation, and his answer was always the same: “I’m trying.”
I’d tell him “Dad, you don’t have to try, just believe in Jesus.” Still, salvation hung in the air, ungrasped, year after year. And during those prayers I lifted up for my dad, the Lord would sometimes speak in that still, small voice, letting me know that it wouldn’t be until just before his death that he would finally receive Him.
A few years later I got a call from my aunt letting me know my dad was sick. The worst kind of sick. He hadn’t wanted to tell anyone for fear they’d look at him or treat him differently. I called my dad and we had a hard conversation. He continued to work until it was impossible.
It was May, and I got another call from my aunt letting me know Dad was in the hospital. I rushed there, day after day, and sat next to him, holding his hand. His mind was already starting to go. He didn’t know where he was or even what year it was. I kept praying and had others praying, too.
One morning someone called, I can’t remember who, to say he’d had some kind of seizure, or something. Our assistant pastor and his wife, our dear friends, graciously met me at the hospital.
There were no more seizures, and the funny thing was, he now knew what year it was. Pastor T went in to talk with him and when he came back out sometime later, he said he’d asked my dad if he wanted to pray to receive Jesus, and my dad said yes. Grasped.
Almost immediately after that, he was a candidate for hospice. One never knows if a hospice bed is going to become available, and if so, how long it will take. But one opened up almost immediately, and the one God chose was perfect.
It was in a home with a beautiful garden. If there was anything my dad loved, it was gardening. He loved the soil (don’t call it dirt!), he loved earthworms, he loved planting. We used to say that once he was able to retire from civil service he should work at a nursery. He would have loved it.
My family, my sister and her family, and my aunt, uncle and cousin sat outside among the gardens eating together for Memorial Day while the hospice workers looked after Dad. We wished so much he could have enjoyed the beauty with us.
The next morning I got a call at 6 am from one of the hospice workers saying he probably didn’t have much longer. I quickly dressed and drove the several miles to get there.
I walked into the room and my cousin was standing by his bed, telling me he had just passed. His beautiful blue, tear-filled eyes were still open. I had just missed him. Still, I held his hand again, and said, “I love you, Daddy.”
My Heavenly Father had, in a miraculous way, kept His promise. Whatever that seizure was, God allowed a moment in time for my dad to be aware, and our friends to be there at just the right time, so he could believe in Jesus and receive Him, and I could have that assurance. That was just five days before he stood before the Lord, washed clean of his sins, and was welcomed with open arms. The peace and joy that had always alluded him in this life was now his forever.
I think about the day I’ll see him again when nothing, and no one, will ever separate us again, and I thank my Heavenly Father for this most precious of gifts.
Eternally Grateful,
I like court shows. And Datelines and 20/20s and documentaries where the guilty person is finally proven guilty and pays for their crimes, or where an innocent person who was wrongly convicted finally goes free.
I love justice and truth. But the more shows I watch the more I see that justice is not always served in this lifetime.
There is one court show I occasionally watch where there are three judges who hear each case. So many times they don’t all agree. Two will come to the same conclusion, but one will dissent from the others. How can that happen? They all heard the same case, they’re all sworn to deliver justice, but somehow, someway, they come to different conclusions. Was justice actually served? Was the verdict correct because the majority agreed, or did the one lone holdout have the correct verdict? Three judges, two conclusions.
Or, a whole jury hears the same trial, convicts, and then later the conviction is proven wrong and overturned.
Makes you wonder how many innocent people have been convicted, and how many guilty people have gone free.
Or, closer to home, there are doctors who misdiagnose, friends, family, spouses, or children who misjudge or mistreat us, basic human rights go unmet, and now, what is all too common, an entire internet of people who, virtually overnight, will rashly judge, convict, and verbally carry out their harsh sentences.
I have a dear friend who, years after we had gotten to know each other, confessed to me that when she first met me she thought I was “stuck-up.” I’m not exactly sure what made her believe that, but oh boy was she wrong.
Parents may have warned us that life isn’t fair, and they were right.
And maybe, especially when we’re hurting very deeply, we wonder why God hasn’t answered our prayers, and if God hasn’t made the wrong decision, too.
It can seem as if we’re suffering unjustly, and the truth is, maybe we are.
Jesus did. He didn’t deserve to be nailed to a cross, every nerve in his body searing with pain, heaving to fill his lungs with even the slightest bit of air, a mob of people standing before him who have rashly judged and convicted him and were verbally carrying out their harsh sentences.
It was wholly unjust, but here’s the thing: it was right. In God’s sight it was good because of what He was doing through it, and though no one knew it at the time, it would have an effect, a purpose more meaningful than any other act of injustice ever would.
God has the power to do that.
So if you’re suffering unjustly right now, remember the cross. Remember that the glory Christ’s Heavenly Father brought about through His suffering, our Heavenly Father can and will do through ours.
He saw His Son suffering unjustly, and He sees everything that’s happened or is happening to us. Nothing escapes Him. He is compassionate and understanding toward us and always knows the right thing to do, because He is the Righteous Judge. He is right 100% of the time.
In fact, there are three Persons to the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and they never disagree. There are never instances where One dissents from the conclusion of the other Two. There is no miscarriage of justice that He doesn’t see and that will not be paid for, either through His Son’s work on the cross, or through judgment in the next life.
And there is no suffering, no injustice, no unfairness – whether He allows it to continue or stops it, whether He heals or doesn’t heal, whether He restores a relationship or doesn’t, whatever the case may be – that He cannot use for His glory and make something out of it more beautiful than we can ever imagine.
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” Romans 8:18-21
God is using those painful circumstances (if we let Him) as a holy fire in our hearts to burn off the sin that would separate us from Him, steal our peace, cause us pain, and probably injustice in another person’s life.
I’m glad my friend eventually changed her mind, and I’m glad my Father sees my heart, my life, and will use all my painful circumstances, those done to me and by me, when given to Him at the foot of the cross where all sin goes to die, to create in me and through me something beautiful.
And my pain is just one piece of the puzzle. When we stand before Him and all our puzzle pieces are put together, we’ll see the whole picture, and know that truth and love and righteousness has prevailed because we have the Perfect Judge who judges rightly every single time.
I’ve watched those stories where someone was wrongly convicted and spent 10, 20, 30 years in prison, and then those people are proven innocent and released. Almost every time, when asked if they’re bitter because of the time spent in prison, with a huge smile on their face, they say no. They’re just happy it’s over and now they’re free.
It will be that way with us when we’re released from our time spent here, having suffered all kinds of trials, and we see our Savior face to face. All the pain will be gone, and we’ll just worship Him and rejoice that we’re finally free. And I’m convinced that somehow, someway, our Father will more than make it up to us.
Sometimes the state will pay restitution to someone who’s served time unjustly. In some cases millions of dollars. If human beings do that, imagine what our Heavenly Father has planned for those who love Him, who trust Him through the injustices we face here, knowing our Righteous Judge will more than make everything whole and right and perfect in the end.
So take those injustices and give them to our Righteous Judge. Give Him those circumstances, that pain, those people, and let Him judge rightly. Then hold onto Christ. Hold onto Hope. It may seem like a long time away, but it isn’t. Justice is coming, and all things will be made right.
Heavenly Father, we praise you. Thank you for not only providing Ruth with a redeemer, but for giving us a Redeemer in your Son through her. We pray you will give us boldness to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ and that He would become known in more and more hearts in our families, in our neighborhoods, at our places of business, throughout our country, and into the world. Lord Jesus, help us to continually seek you, to trust you, and hear from you so that our steps our led by you with wisdom and grace. When we face difficulties, help us proclaim your name. When we are blessed with success, help us proclaim your name. When we don’t understand, help us proclaim your name. In life and in death, help us to continually, boldly, faithfully proclaim the Name that is above all names, – Yeshua Hamashiach – Jesus the Messiah, the Anointed One, our Savior and Redeemer. In His glorious name we pray, amen.
Don’t give up.
Those are my words to you today. Well, those are God’s words to me, and I’m sharing them with you. Don’t give up.
That health issue you’ve been dealing with for so long? Don’t give up.
That relationship you’ve been trying to heal for so long? Don’t give up.
That person you’ve been praying about for so long? Don’t give up.
That ministry you’re in, that job you’ve worked hard at, that goal you keep trying and maybe failing… Insert your own seemingly impossible situation.
Don’t. Give. Up.
What if Moses had given up during his 40 years before God called him, or the 40 years he wandered in the desert after He called him? What if Jeremiah had given up prophesying to God’s people because they refused to listen to him? What if Abraham and Sarah had given up on having the promised child? What if Nehemiah had given up when the walls of Jerusalem had been destroyed? What if Job had given up when his wife told him to?
What if Ruth had given up when her husband died? What if Joseph had given up while he languished in prison? What if Gideon had given up and let fear take over while hiding in the winepress? What if David had given up when he sinned so colossally? What if Peter had given up and never come back to Jesus after His resurrection? What if John had given up on the island of Patmos?
God’s Word is not a cleaned up, whitewashed story showing only the good side of mankind. God intentionally lets us see the worst of it – the sin, the shame, the end of the road, the hopelessness that exists in all our lives at one time or another.
And then we see God. Time and time again we see a loving, gracious Heavenly Father who loves to change the story. He loves a surprise ending. And a surprise beginning and middle. He loves to show the greatness of His mercy at a time when no one would have expected it.
God’s Word, which continues in all His believers, is a story of a God who makes the impossible possible. He makes the wretched sinner new and free. He makes the dead alive again. He gives hope to the hopeless. He is the miracle-maker, the faith-giver, the blessed redeemer. He is the power and the glory. He is the overcomer.
Call on Him now in the confidence of who He is and confess the sin, present the problem, and then wait with great expectation.
“Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.” Psalm 42:5
If you have never put your faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, let me say this – God loves you. He loves you so much that He sent His only Son to die in your place. Yes, you. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, it doesn’t matter how you’ve failed, it doesn’t matter where you are, who you are, how old or young you are. (Believe me, no one was as lost as I was.) God is able to save you right here, right now.
Simply acknowledge that you have sinned – in other words, confess you’re not perfect. None of us is. We have all sinned and fallen short of the perfection of God. Then tell God that you receive Jesus Christ’s payment on the cross for your sin, and ask Jesus to come into your life, into your heart, to make you a new person, and to fill you with the Holy Spirit.
If you want to read more, you can click up at the top on How You Can Know God, and you can read a little snippet of my story of redemption at My Testimony. If you prayed this prayer, or if you have any questions, or would like prayer for any reason, click on A Place For Prayer Requests or you can email me by clicking on that swanky envelope to the right. May the Lord bless you and fill you anew with His hope and peace.