Tag Archives: heart

Heart Matters

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Moments with My Father ~

 

I’m enjoying the set-free life gifted to us by Jesus’ death and resurrection in a new day that is a beautiful Spring day here in Idaho.  In beginning my day, I have been reading about two disciples that were on the road to Emmaus.  As they were walking along, they were talking with each other about everything that had happened.  As they walked and talked, Jesus met them there, although in His risen state, they did not recognize Him at first. These two men were blessed!  How wonderful it is to walk and talk with Jesus!  Life doesn’t get better than that!  Oh and I find Jesus’ approach to them very interesting, in that He asked them what they had been discussing.  I’m seeing that this is a very key point in our relationships with others!  Jesus understood that what comes from the mouths of people tells where our hearts are at.  The fact that Jesus desired to walk and talk with these two men showed that He was desiring to do life with them where they were at and He desired talking about what was on their hearts with them because He cared about them.  His desire was not for superficial, lovely day type of conversation – it was a desire for conversation that revealed the deepest issues these two men were dealing with in life.  How fascinating that this story also brings out that after a time spent with Jesus and breaking bread with Him, the two knew Truth about Jesus and they knew who Jesus was.  As I ponder this story, there is so much food for thought!  Here are some of the things I am seeing:  Jesus already knew the hearts of these men, but we can learn from Him through His example.  He asked what the two were discussing, as it would bring out from their hearts where these men were at in their knowledge and outlook towards Jesus and life.  In asking these men to share, it showed that Jesus cared about them and their well being and it provided  the knowledge to best know how to love them and help them.  Through all of this, our Father is showing me today how important a person’s heart is in our relationships.  Here are some interesting things about a person’s heart we can ponder as we do life together with others  1) A person’s heart reflects who the person is.  2) Only God knows someone’s heart fully. 3) The secrets of our hearts are laid bare before Him. 4) God can change hearts. 5) What goes into our hearts comes out of our hearts 6) God desires that we love Him with all of our heart and that our hearts be right before Him. 7)The Lord tells us to guard our hearts, as it is the wellspring of life. 8) With Jesus’ resurrection, now as believers, His Spirit lives in our hearts and it is by His Spirit in us that our hearts cry out “Abba, Father” that is expressive of a close relationship with Him.  In summary, Jesus knows that it is in being close in heart that develops close relationships and in being close to our Father and filling our hearts with His Truth helps us help each other, love each other, be able to share Truth with each other and know and recognize Jesus as we walk and talk together.  Oh what a blessed journey it is doing life together close in heart with Jesus in our midst. I’m loving life with ya today!

Lk 24:13-35; Ps 7:9, 44:21, 119:11; Pr 4:23, 27:19; Mt 22:37; Ac 8:21; Eph 6:5-8; Ga 4:4-6; 1 Sa 10:9;

Tug of War

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Moments with My Father ~

 

My Father reminds me this morning of an activity that I used to participate in when I was a young girl in school.  All of the kids in my class were divided into two teams and each team took hold of opposite ends of a long rope.  There was a mark on the ground between us and the goal was to pull the opposing team so one of their team members crossed over the mark which brought their loss in the competition.  This activity was call “Tug of War.”  This is a sport that is actually played all over the world that puts two teams against each other in a test of strength.  My Father has laid it upon my heart this morning that as Christians, we are constantly involved in “Tug of War” activity with the enemy, the Devil.  His Word spoken to me this morning says that in the last days, there will be scoffers of the Lord Jesus who will follow their own ungodly desires.  They are those who will divide us, who follow their natural instincts and do not have the Spirit of the Lord.  In an effort to win this war, Our Father tells us the importance of building ourselves up in our most holy faith and praying in the Spirit, keeping ourselves in God’s love as we wait for His mercy to rescue us from this life into eternity.  Being on our Father’s winning team, this means being a part of His team – being in relationship with our Father and other Christians, reading His Word (the Bible) and praying for strength to win the battles that we face that tug on us to cross over the line to the enemy’s side called sin.  As we do, did you know our Father is helping us win and cheering us on?  Yes, it is true!   His Word tells us that His Spirit helps us in our weakness.  We may not even know what to pray for, but the Lord’s Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.  Our Father understands our struggles as He searches our hearts and He knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will which is that we win over the enemy!   Oh, I can hear that in my mind as I visualize our team tugging and tugging to win the battle between the flesh and the Spirit’s desires and our Father’s Spirit groaning as He helps us fight the fight to win over the enemy.  As our Father’s cheerleader, I say to you this morning “Come on team, let’s win!  Let’s tug, tug, tug and don’t give an inch to the enemy.  We can do this.  It will be a blessed time when at the end of the war, we can do the victory dance and reap the rewards of our efforts to apply strength for our Father’s winning team!  Woohoo!  It’s gonna be fun and victory will feel so sweet.  Be strong.  Keep going! So many need us!”

Jude 1:17-21; MT 5:25-46; Ro 8:1-17, 26-27; Eph 6:10-18; Ps 149:1-3; Rev 21:1-8

Staring at Jesus

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Moments with My Father ~

 

As I gaze into my Father’s Word this morning, my heart echoes the heart of the one whom it is said had a heart after God’s own heart – David.  What I mean is that my heart agrees with David when he said that the Lord was his strength and his shield.  He said that when his heart was trusting in Him, he was helped.  It made his heart leap for joy and led him to give thanks to the Lord in song.  This is so true in my life, that when I have my eyes fixed or staring at Jesus, I am helped in life, I have great joy and He gives me a thankful heart.  Have you ever saw someone staring off at something and you wonder what they are thinking about?  It must be something that is heavy on their heart to divert their total attention away from what is going on around them.  They are not focused on what is around them because they are so focused on something else in their mind.  This is how it is when I am staring at or focused on my Father.  I am lost in His love, hearing His voice and thus, I am shielded from the ways the world competes for my attention, I am strengthened to do my Father’s will.   I trust Him to help me as I have need.  He fills me with joy and thanksgiving.  In fact, you might even hear me belt out a little tune!   I’m chuckling as my singing may not be that pleasant for those around me to hear, so I’ll share this link with you to hear what is on my heart today:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqkW19B0d3g

 

I’m carrying this tune in my heart today and I know it will be a sweet sound in my Father’s ears because He loves it when His kids sing.  I’m glad we are in this day together!

 

Ps 28:7; Ps 118:24; Heb 12:2

Luv Suds

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Moments with My Father
 
Hi, there. I’m lovin’ doin’ Thursday with ya’s! In my world today, I am worshipping my Father for all He is. What this world needs is more of Him and His love. He IS love! As His kids, His Word encourages us to be imitators or models of Him. The power that we need to do that is from His presence (Holy Spirit) that lives in us as believers. To love in accordance with His will, we are called to love our Father first with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and then we are to love our neighbors, especially fellow believers, as our self. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians with the prayer that our Father would enable them to have “increased” love that would overflow to each other and to all people as well. He also let them know they were loved by himself and his team. It is God’s Spirit in us that enables us to love God, ourselves and others as we ought to, including giving us strength to not grieve His Spirit in us by giving in to willful sin. Walking in obedience to our Father’s ways that are His best for us, is our best way to be filled to overflowing with His Spirit’s loving power. Have you ever had the experience of putting soap in a bucket and seen how the soap suds can increase and bubble up and over the top? Well, this is how I see it with our Father’s Spirit producing the power in us to be love. We are the vessel (bucket) and with added soap (cleanliness of walking in obedience to His ways) and His living water (Holy Spirit) filling us up, we’ll have plentiful suds(power) to overflow with love. I have to say this just gets me all bubbly! I definitely wanna be a suds in the bucket kind of gal with His living water filling me to overflowing. May there be bubbles of Godly love oozing from each one of us so none of us are a luv suds dud. Much love to ya’s! If I say that, is that a bubble of love?
 
1 Th 3:12; Mt 22:34-40. Jn 14:15-31; Eph 1:13, 4:30, 5:1-2,15-18; Gal 6:10, Ac 2:1-4, 4:23-31, 1 Jn 1:8-10, 4:7-21, Ps 19:13, Is 41:10, 2 Ch 16:9

The Best Way

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Moments with My Father

 

I’m thanking my Father that it’s Friday – a new gift of opportunity to us all! One opportunity that I rejoice in is that I have the privilege of hearing my Father’s voice as He speaks through His Word to me. There is nothing like the power of His voice to do amazing things within my heart. What a delight He is in my life! This morning’s message I heard during my time with Him is based upon what Paul said “Whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.” Have you ever found yourself headed in one direction in life and the next thing you know you are going the opposite or a different direction? You are going along full speed ahead and all of a sudden you hear our Father’s voice that changes your mind about the direction you are going and you immediately flip a “U” turn and go full speed ahead the opposite direction. I’ve been chuckling as a cartoon image fills my mind of someone running on a horse as fast as they can in a direction on a road, running past people who are scattered along the side when all of a sudden lo and behold, here they come running full speed back the other way. I imagine these folks along the road saying “What’s up with that?” Well, the Apostle Paul had this experience on the road of his life. He was full speed ahead in killing Christians – he was extremely zealous in doing that and then all of a sudden, he’s in chains in prison for his zeal in telling people how wonderful Jesus was! It could confuse an onlooker! One thing Paul was real good about doing and he loved to do was to explain to people what happened in his world that caused the change. In his own way, he basically told people like “Well, ya see, I was headed this direction and Christ told me this, so I turned around and now I’m going the other direction! The same thing can happen to us in a few different ways. 1) Our Father can will one thing for us in life for a time and then we can find out His will for what He wants us to do down the road has changed to something different. 2) We can be wrong in our interpretation of how God is leading us and when He reveals that to us, we change our direction. This happened in Paul’s life. 3) We can be running down the road of life, self-centered and aimed our own way for our own perceived profit somehow. Jesus then speaks to us about it and the next moment we become Christ centered and find ourselves turned around. In any of these ways, once the sake of Christ becomes the greater issue, we will find ourselves turned around. What we once saw as for our profit or gain becomes of little or not of value. I’m looking at this in my mind and asking my Father to show me if there is an area in my life where I’m heading in a direction that I need to turn around in and head the other direction. I am also asking is there something greater in my life that I see as more profitable or gain over Him? Yikes!! If so, I need to ask our Father to help me to view it as loss compared to Him and change my direction. Depending on the circumstances, it could be embarrassing as ya have to run past all those along the road that have observed ya before. It isn’t necessarily embarrassing that we are heading in a Godly direction now into the future, but that we were heading in the wrong direction before. I find encouragement in that our Father who is the greater observer is an understanding and forgiving observer and the great rewarder for new found obedience. To go the direction He desires is worth riding past all other onlookers. Who knows, seeing you run by them going the different direction just may cause them to follow along! Yeehaw! I’m seeking to ride His way through this day ‘cuz it’s the right way to run and it will get me to where I’m suppose to be going!

Php 2:3, 3:7; Acts 3:19, 9:1-30, 11:21; Jer 29:11; Pr 16:9; Eph 6:19-20; 1 Jn 1:9; 1 Co 3:10-15; Ro 10:2; Gal 4:18; Heb 4:15-16; Ro 12:2

 

 

Whistle, Whistle!

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Moments with My Father

 

It’s Thursday morning and as we do each morning, part of our day is spent grooming in the bathroom and working to make ourselves “presentable and not offensive” to others. I think pretty much everyone when they look into the mirror, they realize they have some physical thing(s) about themselves that is less than “perfect” in their eyes, based on the voice of society. Society is so hard to please and in fact, it is down right impossible apart from touched up photos! People can become very downcast in their souls over it and may spend mega bucks and time to attempt to change their perceived imperfections or cover over them and with age, the more of these imperfections appear. I really haven’t ever met anyone who confidently says “Yep, I’m a perfect physical specimen in the eyes of the world!” If you can relate to the struggle over what seems as physical defects, be encouraged that everyone is in the same boat on this issue, in that we all have them and it keeps us humble so it is actually good for us not to see ourselves as perfect in appearance. Our Father shows me these Words this morning to help us to have a good viewpoint of ourselves. He tells us we are fearfully and wonderfully made and I agree. Let’s see any of us create us from nothing and see what we get. YIKES AND SCARY!!! Can you imagine the time, cost and energy and smarts it would take to even attempt it and where would we even start? I’m glad I don’t have that job assignment!!! Are ya listening, boss? Our Father says man looks at the outward appearance, but He looks at the heart of each of us. It is the heart that is the most important part of us! We should help each other to view and beautify this part of us far more as a priority over our appearances. I am thinking it is important in the mornings to groom our hearts to make them presentable and not offensive by spending time letting our Father’s voice speak to us. At the end of life, what we will desire to be remembered about us will not be “Well, back in her younger days, she physically looked pretty good! I really doubt it will be said “Why she looked as good physically at 92 as she did at 29! I surmise it will be far more important what we did with our life. I hope based on my heart it is said “Why at 92, how she lived her life for the Lord was much better than when she was 29!” Do I hear any “amens” out there? An outwardly beautiful person can be very unattractive if they have an ugly heart and vice versa. As I think about grooming myself for presentation in life, I find my Father’s voice about how He has “groomed” us encouraging: Jesus loved each one of us so much as the church and as His bride that He laid down His physical self to death on the cross to cleanse us from our sin by the washing with water through the Word (renewal and rebirth in Him) and to present us to Himself as radiant (shining, glorious, brilliant, bright), without stain (spot or discoloration, taint of guilt) or any other blemish (a flaw that spoils, a shame). Hence, we are holy (set apart as His and sacred as a temple of God) and blameless (without fault). We now shine with unsullied (unsoiled, undefiled) splendor in the eyes of the Greatest One in the Universe. Ya can’t impress anyone any grander than He and He designed each of us just the way that He desired us to be and covered over all our imperfections through Christ’s cleansing of us. So let’s step out into this day with confidence in Him! We can smile a big smile as we are His amazing, special and loved kids – beautiful right down to our feet that carry His Good News into the world! Whistle, whistle!
Eph 5:25-27; Ps 139:14; 1 Sa 16:7; 1 Pe 5:5-6; 2 Cor 6:16; Col 1:22; Ro 10:13-15

The Car Wash

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Moments with My Father

 

Good morning to you! As I gaze upon our Father’s Word today, it is on my heart to write about the importance of putting off our old self which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires and to be made new in the attitude of our minds – to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. This is a message we have all heard before, meaning our old self is the sinful nature that lives within us, for which Christ died on the cross. This old nature within us misleads us from God’s ways and cheats us from seeing life at His best. Our Father mentions “attitude” of our minds in this passage. The attitude of our old self is one of worry, complaining and grumbling. Upon believing, He has placed His Holy Spirit in us to help us live our new self, to be like Him that is not anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, presenting our requests to God. And then the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. “Attitude” is something we can all struggle with and a bad attitude is certainly something to work on. I like to think about it this way: When our attitude is bad, we need to think “going to the car wash.” Say what? Yep, I said “car wash.” After all, we are God’s vehicles, so to speak, that carries His Spirit that carries the Good News along the road of life. Our vehicles have a tendency to collect dirt and be unclean (due to our sinful nature). As a result, the view through the front window (our sight) can become clouded over so that we do not see well the way of the Lord. This calls for the need to hose off with His living water (the Spirit in us), to apply the scrubbing bubbles called “Gratitude” as you follow the Word instructions (the Bible) so as to dissolve away the muck of our sinful attitude and then, use prayer wax to help guard (our mind and heart) and the cleanliness and shininess of Him in us (the new self) will be the result. We can then head out onto the road of life with peace of mind and His ride into the world through us will represent Him well. I’m thinking toting a good amount of change is a good thing to do. How about you? See ya on the road. I can do that well with a clean window (a Godly view)!
Eph 4:1,22-24; Php 2:14-16, 4:6-8; Mt 6:25; 1 Co 3:16; 2 Co 5:20-21, Ro 12:2

The True Friend by Sheila and Dad

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This week is trudging right along and here we are at Thursday. I hope your day is going better than Jesus’ as told by Mark’s story. Jesus is found smack dab in the middle of His Father’s will, but it is not a walk in the orchard of Mount Olives like He so enjoyed. He is now being tried before the high priest, the elders and teachers of the law as they all came together to dig up dirt on Jesus. You would think they would’ve had this figured out before they arrested Jesus. Wow! Talk about pressure in life! Can you imagine? It would be kind of like all the heads of major ministries and churches putting you before them for scrutiny. They have their fine-toothed combs and high-powered microscopes out and they are looking closely for evidence to put you to death. In Jesus’ case, they couldn’t find any – probably because the man was a saint and actually Divine! Some of them resorted to lies and false accusations about Him, but they couldn’t agree on these. Truth in minds tends to put people on the same page. The Truth indicators seemed to point that Jesus was the Christ and so they decided to ask Him if He was. He answered truthfully back that He was. At hearing the Truth they didn’t believe Him, but none the less, the Truth moved them to decide to unify and condemn Him worthy of death. Hence, they spit on Him, blindfolded Him, struck Him with their fists and asked Him to prophesy. Then the guards took Him and beat Him. Have you ever observed that there is power in numbers? One on one, people are not always a threat, but get them together with a crowd and watch out! Crowds have influence! Sometimes a crowd brings strength in good ways and some in not very good ways. I think it is important to recognize the influence of the crowds we choose to partner with in life. Dad’s Word says “Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong!” Yikes!!! While Jesus had His crowd of enemies who really wanted to see Him out of the picture, there were those who followed with Him. One of them was Peter – our “superman.” Even though he wasn’t perfect, his heart for Jesus is seen in his telling Jesus he’d never deny Him, he was the one who put forth effort to defend him in the orchard of Mount Olives and now rather than abandoning Jesus, he stuck with Him and followed as close to Him as he could be. His heart was with Jesus. As seen in this story, it is in the tough times in life when you discover who your true friends really are. They are quite often more loyal than one’s own biological family. They are the ones who go the distance for you. They love you when others scatter away. In my heart, I so want to be that kind of a friend, yet like Peter I feel I often flounder in my humanity. I hate my flounders. ‘Tis so sweet we all have the perfect kind of a friend in Jesus! Greater love has no one than this, that He lay down His life for His friends. He sets the perfect example of a good friend in His forgiveness extended to His friends when they are scattered and fall away short of being perfect. Bless Him!
Mk 14:53-65; Jn 15:13; Pr 27:10; Ex 23:2

Risen and Goin’ by Sheila and Dad

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Good Tuesday morning by dear brothers and sisters! I’m excited to share with you these thoughts that our Dad has laid on my heart regarding a passage of Scripture that I have read many times before. I’m pretty gabby today. Dad’s Words spoken to me can move me to action like nothing else. He definitely knows how to motivate me and get me all excited. He rocks! Today, we find that Jesus and His disciples have arrived at Gethsemane – one of His favorite places that He frequently visited which was an olive orchard on the lower slope of Mount Olives. I can so relate to His desire to be in God’s creation as I love being in the midst of it as well. In this setting, Jesus told His disciples “Sit here while I pray.” He was deeply distressed and troubled. He took with Him three of His closest disciples, Peter, James and John. Like Jesus, we all have lots of brothers and sisters in the family of God, but each of us usually have a small close circle of relationships of support that we tend to relate well to, feel confident in sharing with and tend to include in our troubled times. But given that, Jesus sets a good example, in that He broke away from His loved ones in His life for times of solitude with His Dad. Jesus confided in those close to Him by sharing His troubled heart when He said “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” He then told them “Stay here and keep watch.” In spiritual application of this, I see Him saying to those close to Him at this time when He needed solitude to please stay here (a place of physical distance, but with Him in thought or heart) and watch for the Lord’s guidance and also the enemies’ actions. It is always nice to know we are not alone in our battles in life even if those close to us are physically apart from us, but keeping us close in their thoughts. As the story continues, Jesus then fell to the ground, placing Himself in a lowly (humble) position before His Dad and He prayed, sharing His heart’s desire and asking His Dad to carry out His will for His life. When He returned to His disciples, He found them asleep and He ask them “Could you not even keep watch for one hour?” Jesus told His disciples to watch and pray so that they would not fall into temptation. Jesus went away a second time to pray and when He returned, He found His disciples sleeping again which left them not knowing what to say to Him. It is always hard when we realize that in going through life, we have overlooked someone’s needs. It is encouraging to know that we are not alone in this. This story points out there were three of them that did the same thing in overlooking Jesus’ request due to their tiredness. They had had a full day already. Again Jesus prayed and the third time He returned to His disciples, He said to them “Are you still sleeping and resting. Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. “Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!” This plants upon my heart the seeds that we as Christians have close ones in our life that are often going through troubling times and they need us to not be asleep (unalert) in life, but to be alert for how the enemy is at work in their life. It is easy for us to get so absorbed in our own lives that we don’t take the time to pray for them and we can miss the opportunity to fight the battle with them. Dad’s Words spoken here are a good reminder that we also need to not be sleeping as to what the enemy is doing in our own lives as well. We need to pray for ourselves that we do not fall into temptations in life. In Spirit, we may think that we are strong, but our flesh is weak; we are vulnerable to attack and we can easily fall. I think that one of the ways that the enemy works on us is to distract us from the real issues of importance in our lives – our relationships. It is in this way that he gains victory. So I ask you and I ask myself, what is happening in the lives of those closest to me that I need to be praying for them about so that the enemy doesn’t weaken them to the point of giving up on our Father’s will for them? For example: I have seen many times when the Devil works to betray people by crucifying them mentally for sins that they have fallen into for which Jesus bore the cup for and He has forgiven them for. This begs the question and challenge that if the God of the Universe forgives us and is for us, who can really stand against us or how can we rightly give someone else, the Devil or our self a stand against our Dad to say we are not worth forgiving? To do so is to say “Oh, huh” to the wisest of all!” It is to place our self above our Father in a position that we are not worthy to be in and when I do this to myself, I as a cowgirl see this as a high horse I need to say “whoa” to and get off of or it will take me on a ride that is a living H E double LL! YIKES!!! Just as Jesus needed, our loved ones need us to pray for them and encourage them to carry out our Father’s will. Are ya with me in these thoughts? I’m thinking it is important to rise and go for the sake of others by carving aside a specific time for prayer when I am not tired and falling asleep to pray for myself and others. Dad tells us that the prayers of a righteous man or woman are powerful and effective! When I look at the prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane, I see that Jesus was unique and the call on His life was different from ours. It was our Father’s will that the enemy’s plot to crucify Jesus be carried out. This meant that Jesus would take the cup of wrath, pay the wages of sin that gave Him the taste of death for all of mankind’s past, present and future sin once and for all. But then, the Father gave Jesus victory over the cup that brought death! This was an answer to what Jesus had prayed to have removed. Death could not hold Him! The Father honored His prayer and gave Him a risen life again. Whoohoo! Our Dad is so good! I just love Him for His kindness and sweetness to us in rescuing us from our sins! It is sweet victory in sweet Jesus – ya gotta love it! There is one poor sport, however, the Devil, the enemy (betrayer) who wants people today to be asleep in remembering that their sins are forgiven. When I don’t remember Jesus’ victory over my sin and His acceptance of me, the enemy can make me feel defeated, alone and wanting to give up. This cowgirl is fighting to the end and I am not going to let the enemy win in my life or the lives of my loved ones. So I’ve decided I am going to implement the following: 1) If I’m deeply distressed and troubled in life, I need to find someone close to talk with about it and ask them to pray for me. 2) I need to be alert to the needs of my loved ones and what it is that I need to be praying for them. 3) I need to pray often as Jesus did with His Dad, about what it is troubling me for others and myself and ask Him for strength and help to carry out His will, knowing He loves us and His will is the very best in the end. A part of that will is that I need to listen to what my Dad is telling me and not say “Oh, huh, I’ll believe my own way of thinking.” As I realize in my life, so I encourage you – we are not alone in life. There is one named Jesus who is stayed here with us in Spirit, yet seated at the right hand of God and is watching and praying for us; He never sleeps. He lives His life to make intercession for me and for you to help us choose the right and defeat the enemy, the Devil so that we can have victory in life. Why the thought of Him doing that for me and you makes me just want to do a little victory dance to kick off this day! Are ya with me? Yeehaw!
Mk 14:32-42; 1 Pe 5:6-11; Ja 4:7, 5:13-16; 1 Jn 1:9; Pr 3:5; Ro 6:23, 8:26-29; Jn 3:16, 5:24;
Ps 121:4; He 7:23-25;

ALL for Him by Sheila and Dad

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It’s Friday with our Father everyone! Whoohoo! What a treat to go through this day with Him! As we join Him in His Word today, we see Him in the temple sitting opposite the place where the offerings were put and He watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts, but a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling His disciples to Him, Jesus said “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth, but she out of her poverty, put in everything – all that she had to live on.” Wow! Can you imagine being in church and Dad watching to see what you put into the plate knowing what He has given to you? Yikes!!! I’d want Him to be proud of me for what I give. As I think about this story and giving my ALL to Him, the thought that comes to me is that more than ALL of my finances as a sacrifice, Dad more than ALL desires my whole heart devotion to Him. He says to love Him with ALL my soul, heart, mind and strength. I think the widow in this story modeled that and also what Paul said “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ, my Lord, for whose sake I have lost ALL things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law (sacrifices), but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.” God’s Word gives us guidelines for giving, but Dad says He loves a cheerful giver and does not want us to give out of compulsion. If you have to beg someone for them to give you a gift, it isn’t really meaningful is it? If we love God with ALL our heart, His love for us and our love for Him compels us to give. Our Father has wisdom and can guide us each individually in giving as there are many reasons He provides for us, including providing for our families. To return to Him a portion of what he gives us is honoring to Him as the source or giver of ALL that we have. When we are seeking oneness with Him, He will give us the desires (motivations) of our heart. He will move us to will and act according to His good purpose. How He moves one heart may be different from another. In light of ALL of this, I ask you as I ask myself “Are ya ALL in for Jesus?” Trust in Him to guide you and if He so moves you, put your two coins in or leave your two coins out, or put yer five coins in and pass the plate around, do the giving Hokey Pokey as He moves your heart about – loving Dad’s what it’s ALL about! Dad bless y’ALL!
Mk 12:30, 41-44; Php 3:7-9; 2 Co 5:14-15, 9:6-15; 1 Ti 5:8; Php 2:13; Lev 27:30; Ro 12:1-2

Mission Impossible by Sheila and Dad

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We’re talkin’ it’s Tuesday all day long and today we find Jesus starting on His way after spending time with the little children when a man runs up to Him and falls on his knees before Him. As I think of this, a line from a song runs through my mind – the lyrics are probably familiar to you: “Fall on your knees, oh hear the angels voices! Oh night, devine, oh night, when Christ was born.” Ok, I know it is a Christmas song, but the Spirit of Christmas should be lived out everyday, right? I share the thought to point out that from the day Jesus was born, people were moved to fall upon their knees before Him. To fall on my knees before my Lord everyday is a really good idea as well. I so admire this man in the story for his position of kneeling before Jesus! The being of Jesus is so extraordinary that it tends to bring a person to their knees. It is a position of reverence and honor. Someday Christ will return to earth from Heaven and when He does, Dad’s Word says every knee will bow before Him. The man in this story recognized Jesus as good, worthy of reverence and honor, but Jesus questioned Him as to why he called Him good. This was a question directed at the position of the man’s heart. Jesus told him “only God is good.” Jesus was trying to make a point to this man that God alone is able to live up to perfection. It is not something any man can do. Jesus questioned the man if he was aware of God’s Law, the Ten Commandments. The man responded that he was and that he had kept them since he was a boy. This reminds me of me before I had the full understanding of sin and how impossible it was to live the Ten Commandments perfectly. It was only when I understood how great my inability to live perfectly was that I understood why Christ died for me and that the only hope I had for eternal life with God was through His sacrifice on the cross for me. Wow! I’m so thankful that light turned on in my brain! What a relief and a burden of weight was lifted from me that day to know my Father’s acceptance of me was not based on my performance of living perfect. This thought is a good reason to keep going in ministry for our Father’s Kingdom, to help others understand this Truth! Upon hearing the man’s heart about how he had kept the commandments from the time he was a boy, it says Jesus looked at him and loved him. This statement brings a tear to this cowgirl’s eyes. Jesus saw this man’s lack and He loved him anyway. Even though he wasn’t perfect and didn’t fully understand how he fell short, Jesus loved him anyway. What an encouragement to me to know this is how Jesus sees us and loves us! I can’t help but think here that Dad so desires us as His kids to treat each other the same way. He sets a great example for us! Next, Jesus told the man to “Go and sell everything you have and give it to the poor and you will have treasure in Heaven. Then come and follow me.” This is not a request Jesus asks as a prerequisite of discipleship. Jesus asked this man this because He knew where this man’s heart was and that by giving away his wealth, the man would have removed the obstacle that was dearer to Him than pursuing Heaven with a perfect heart. To enter Heaven based on his own merit or efforts of obeying God’s commands was put to the test here – could he desire and pursue Heaven above all else? Jesus was correct in knowing this man’s heart and upon hearing this, the man’s face fell and he became sad because he had great wealth. Jesus told the Disciples “How hard it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.” The Disciples were amazed at Jesus’ words and Jesus said again “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.” This contrast of the largest animal in Palestine and the smallest opening represents what, humanly speaking is impossible. Well, after this visual mindset, the Disciples were then really amazed and said to each other something like “Yikes! Who then can be saved?” Jesus reassured them that “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” We cannot save ourselves from our sins by our works of righteousness. However, through belief in Christ’s death on the cross for the forgiveness for our sins, we can have the treasure of Heaven. Whoohoo! “Oh, thank you, Jesus for doing what was impossible for me do and for loving me where I lack. The thought of this brings me to my knees.”
Mk 10:17-27; Php 2:5-11; Ro 14:11; Jn 3:16; Mt 6:24; He 12:2-3; 2 Co 4:18; 1 Th 5:14; Is 64:6; Eph 2:8-9

Gotta Love It

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I’m traveling through Thursday with ya and with His disciples, Jesus is traveling on to the villages around Caesares Philippi in our story today. On the way, Jesus asked them “Who do people say I am?” The disciples answered Him saying “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah; and still others one of the prophets.” Jesus then asked His disciples “But what about you? Who do you say I am?” Peter answered “You are the Christ.” Jesus then warned them not to tell anyone about Him. Continue reading →

Join in the Calling

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>Join in the Calling by Todd Pierce

Hey all -

These are some quotes from Romans 10 as the writer is expressing his desire in life and encouraging the other believers to join him in the calling. “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.”

“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

“How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent?

As it is written:

How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!”

I am not real sure what things were like in Paul’s day, but it seems like the people of God were faced with similar struggles that we have today. I know that each of you reading this have a heart for God and want to be a part of His work on the earth right now. But we, like the people who received the letter from Paul, are living in tension between our earthly labors (i.e. making a living) and doing the work of the ministry. I believe with all my heart that each of you have a full-time ministry right where you are at. Our Father wants to use you in every aspect of your life. But, there is still a huge need for people to be sent to preach, so people can hear and be saved. I am gifted and called to preach and have been given massive opportunities to reach the people who don’t know the truth. I have been sent by my Pastor and church (Andy Taylor), but I am writing this to ask for your help in being mobilized. We as a ministry have been given opportunities all over this planet (30 states, Russia, Mongolia, Bolivia, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Canada) and my family and I are in agreement that we should go. We are in real need of funding, so please ask our Father if this is the work you should support. If not, please commit your year-end gifts and 2012 finances to some ministry that is preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom to the lost. We are gearing up for a wild 2012. Let me know if you are on board.

Todd Pierce