Tag: prayer

The Race is On

Posted on by Dorci

And crying with a loud voice, Jesus said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” Luke 23:46 

Faith doesn’t come only when things are good – when the sun is shining, the bills are paid, and everyone loves us.  Who needs faith then?

But when the storms rage, the money jar is empty and the enemy knocks at the door, that is when we need faith.  That is when the exercise of our faith in God is most beautiful and He is most glorified. 

Christ is our example.  Rather than avoid it, He walked through the suffering, through the pain, through the rejection and spitting and scoffing and unbelief – even by His own friends.  Why?  Because He had faith in His Father, the Father who sent Him to the cross.  He kept faith that He had a plan and a purpose in His suffering. 

They would never know anything but how to reject, how to accuse, how to inflict pain unless He died.  Unless He offered forgiveness for their sins and they took it.  Only when their eyes were opened and their hearts were wiped clean of sin would they have the capacity for true love.  So He gave Himself so they could be forgiven and bring love into the world.

And they would go on to trust God through their own sufferings, to commit their spirits to their heavenly Father like their Savior did, so others could hear of Him, have their eyes opened and hearts wiped clean of sin.  So they could learn how to love like Jesus did, completely and unselfishly, and fill the world with it.

The torch has been passed to us, and we are called to do the same.

Grace and peace,

 

Last Days Living

Posted on by Dorci

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.

You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” 2 Timothy 3:1-13

What we face today should come as no surprise.  Paul warned us of rampant sin, wolves among sheep, and persecution long ago.  So, the question is: what kind of response should we have? 

1. Expect it. 

There has always been sin and always will be until God pronounces judgment on the world and makes all things right.  But here Paul is warning us about a specific type of sinner.

Those who have a form of godliness but deny its power.  Those who live a form of religiosity but have no relationship with the living God.  These are dangerous people who wield lies as if they were the truth and they lead many down very destructive paths.  Paul warns us not to have anything to do with them.   

It’s not hard to find these kinds of people if we’re living connected to Christ ourselves.  We are to be so filled with the Holy Spirit that we are able to discern the truth from a lie and not get caught up in false doctrine. 

Be aware by staying in prayer and in the truth of God’s Word. 

2. If you can’t beat ’em, don’t join ’em.

That list at the top?  That’s our personal “do not do” list.  Sadly, it’s not just unbelievers who can get caught up in those sins.  Many Christians allow themselves to fall back into temptation, be pulled back into the world and allow it to mold them instead of allowing the Holy Spirit to transform and sanctify them.  Romans 12:2 warns us about this. 

Stay plugged in to the Holy Spirit through obedience and He will lead you into all righteousness. 

3. Live intentionally. 

A tree only bears fruit when it’s been watered and fed properly and when it’s had the proper light.  A godly life doesn’t come by wishing it.  It comes when we’ve purposed to live our lives in the Spirit by praying, reading God’s Word and obeying it. 

And when we do live a godly life, expect persecution.  Sometimes we expect the opposite: that if we’re “good” we’ll be spared from sin.  That couldn’t be further from the truth. 

When we live by the Spirit it is a threat to the enemy and he will stop at nothing to discourage us, to sidetrack us, and outright attack us. 

The apostle Paul attests to that.

It may seem as if those who do evil get away with their evil deeds.  And they very well may, for a time.  But the day will come when they will, in deep sorrow, bow their knee to the One Who is the truth, and they will be judged. 

We will bow our knee to our Savior and be ushered into eternal life and reward. 

Stand tall, stand firm.  Our Savior is with us.  Who can be against us?  No one!

A Father’s Day We’ll Never Forget

Posted on by Dorci

And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:20b

It was Sunday morning, Father’s Day.  I woke up with plans of hearing a good message at church, and then spending some precious family time together, grilling, maybe watching a movie.  Just relaxing.  But that day would soon be anything but relaxing. 

My husband was already up, and a minute or two after I’d gotten up he looked at me with a slight grin and told me our son hadn’t come home.  He’d left the night before, presumably to hang out with some friends.  One particular friend came to mind and I figured he’d gone there and just decided to stay the night.  He’d probably be home any minute. 

My husband began texting him, and we waited.  He texted again.  Still nothing. 

“Forget the texting.” I said, and I made a mad dash to my phone and started to punch in the number, but my husband was already calling.  He finally answered, and the side of the conversation I heard I didn’t like. 

“Where are you?” my husband said.

He suddenly had a confused look on his face. “What’s around you?”

Panic started to form a lump in my throat. 

A few more minutes of their back and forth and I couldn’t stand it anymore.  I pleaded to talk with him.  I asked him all the same questions.  “Where are you?  What do you mean you don’t know where you are?  Are you still driving?”

“Yes.”

We lost our phone connection.  I couldn’t imagine where he was or how he’d gotten there.  And the scariest thing was, neither could he. 

I finally got him on the phone again.  He thought he was on his way to a certain town.  That couldn’t be.  It was so far away.  He kept saying his face hurt.  His phone cut out again. 

We looked at each other and wondered out loud if he really could be on a road so far away from home.  And why did his face hurt? 

After another 20 minutes or so of 30-second conversations between being cut off, he said he was passing a sign with the name of the town he was entering.  Yes, he really had been headed in that direction, away from home. 

He said he was almost out of gas and we were sure his phone was ready to die.  He said he was pulling into a gas station to fill up.  I prayed with him and told him to stay there. We were coming to get him. 

He said he just wanted to get back on the road and come home.  His face hurt. 

I knew I’d have to call on my “mom voice” and demand that he stay put. 

“Are you on the road?” I said.

“Yes. I just want to come home.”

“Turn around and park and stay there!  We are on our way.”

The tone and decibel level of my voice told him I meant business.  He turned around and parked in a parking lot by a certain restaurant and that gave my husband just enough information to know where he was. 

We both ran around the house grabbing ice, water, ibuprofen.  I asked friends to be praying for us.  And in minutes we were in the car driving the almost two-hour trip out of town to get our son.  The trip was taking too long.  I had to remind myself to breathe. 

We finally got there, searched the parking lot for a minute and spotted his car.  All three of us hugged.  His face was scraped up and a corner of his tooth had been left on a sidewalk somewhere, but he was okay.  We took him to the emergency room around the corner to have him checked out.  His CT scan came back fine, but we figured he must have had a slight concussion. 

When we got back home my husband was able to map out his route with the few landmarks he could remember, which included a dirt road, cows and an Indian reservation. 

The worst part of looking at that map was knowing that in order for him to get where he was, he had to have taken the road we took–a road that for miles and miles wound around some mountains and had plenty of drop-offs.  Even when we showed him the route he must have taken, he still didn’t remember. 

It was nothing short of a miracle that he had made that three-hour drive.  Many miracles, in fact. A miracle he didn’t get into an accident.  A miracle he didn’t fall asleep. A miracle he didn’t run out of gas.  A miracle his phone didn’t die.  A miracle he didn’t drive off the side of a mountain.

His tooth was fixed and his face is healing well.  He had been goofing around with a friend, jumped on his back and they both fell onto the sidewalk. He apparently cushioned his friend’s blow. 

Course we had to ask him if he stopped along the way to go cow-tipping.  We got a bit of a grin out of him. 

My prayers for the next week or two consisted mainly of two words—“Thank you.”  I knew we’d been gifted with a great deal of grace that day.  The day wasn’t relaxing, we missed church and there was no movie.  But we had the best Father’s Day we could have.  We’d been given the gift of more time with our son.  So much better than any old tie. 

We don’t always have such a dramatic reminder of God’s constant presence, but He’s there just the same.  No matter where we go or what we do, He’s with us.  And even when we don’t know where we are, He does, and He’s there.

Always.