7/23/2016 0 Comments I Can't Find My ...Some things are just fun when it comes to God. I love that He has time for the little things in our lives. In about 2003, I was a youth leader, as well as people would phone me up just to visit, and a few of us would travel to tent meetings around the country. I was on the phone with a young man, who I had at this point spent a fair bit of time with, when I told him I had to go. I had lost my deposit book and my deposit, and I wanted to find them and get uptown to the bank before it closed. “I know what to do about that,” he said. And he prayed that God would show me where it was. Just then I got a picture of my deposit book sitting on the bottom of my end table, at the far side of the room, behind me and down beside my couch. “Thanks, I know where it is.” I said. I went and looked, and there it was. I was impressed that his faith had grown to that point, and wondered why I hadn’t thought of doing that. In about 2014 one of my girls was franticly looking for a check she had misplaced and I had looked around at my papers then I thought I’ll ask God to show me where it is. So I prayed and asked Him to show me where her check was then I was going to go to it and be super happy that I found it. Just then Meagan yelled from her room “I found it.” “How did you do that,” I asked. I knew she had been looking for a while with no success. “God showed me where it was,” she said. I laughed. “Hey,” I said, “I prayed and asked Him to show me where it was and He showed you.” In 2015 my Mom called me up one day saying she couldn’t find her car keys. She asked me to ask God where they were. The next day, I picked up the phone to call her and I got a picture in my mind of the left side of a deep freeze. So when she answered, I told her her keys were at the left side of her deep freeze. Now granted she has four of them so it left me a little less margin to be wrong. Her keys could have been in a coat pocket, or a purse, or in her bedroom, or in her car. Mom was busy when I told her where I had seen her keys so she didn’t look right away. A day or two later she called me and said she had leaned over to answer her living room phone and there were her keys on the top of her magazine rack, at the left side of one of her deep freezers. I love it when I get help from God like this. One thing I have learned though is that we aren’t to ask for things like this for the wrong reasons; one of them being for God to reveal Himself or just to see a sign or wonder from Him. This kind of help comes from being in a relationship with God. Yes, He will help us when we need the help and it is amazing and I am always in awe of the things He does. Why is this possible? James 1:5-6 (NKJV) If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. Psalm 46:1 (NKJV) 46 God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Now granted finding something that is missing doesn’t seem like a whole lot of trouble but at the time it can be pretty frustrating. Proverbs 3:6 (NKJV) 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. Luke 4:12 (ESV) 12 And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Deuteronomy 6:16 (NLT) 16 You must not test the LORD your God as you did when you complained at Massah.
0 Comments
7/22/2016 0 Comments A Little Girl's QuestionA sweet little girl, we were looking after, came into the kitchen and said, “Momma Marj, why do you guys say God’s name so much at your house?” “Well,” I said, giving myself a second to process the question. I continued, “It’s because He made us and He made the whole big, wide world and He made you for us to love. And God has done a lot of wonderful things in our lives so we have lots to say about Him.” “Oh Okay,” she said and went back into the other room. She seemed happy with my answer but I know that for some people that wouldn’t be a good enough answer. If she was older and needed more explanation I would probably share a story or two from my life. Or I would tell her some bizarre things that I think about, like isn’t it cool that when we have a cut the sensation we get is pain so we don’t want to touch it, which is different than if we get a bug bite or a rash and we want to scratch. What would happen if we felt the sensation of itchy when we had an open wound? That could get ugly. Eww. I also think this world seems to be created just for us, like if the gravitational pull was just a little stronger I might have to walk on my knees or if it had a little less strength I would have to bounce to where I was going. (Wouldn’t I look funny then?) Isn’t it great that the trees and other plants give off oxygen, and I breathe it in and I breathe out carbon dioxide, and trees and plants soak that in? We can grow our own food. It seems to be set up perfect for our survival. We all need water and it rains. I also think it’s amazing how the eyes need a certain amount of vitamin A and lutein, and the stomach gets those things out of our food, and then the blood stream transports the right essential ingredients to the right spots. The same thing goes for essential fatty acids and serotonin. Our brains need these and our stomach extracts them or the building blocks for them from our foods, and our blood transports it to our brains. Our bodies are like computers. Can you imagine the computer that is sitting on your desk or the phone that is in your hand just happening without a designer? Bill Gates and other men like him, I’m sure spent a lot of years creating those devices. If we put all the elements of a computer together in one place could it ever have come together on it’s own to become a working computer? I love to look at the beauty of nature, how perfectly a flower is made, the smell of a new born baby or the smell of a new born puppy’s breath. The majesty of an eagle, the colors of a butterfly, the transparent wings of a dragon fly and the glow of a firefly. Or watching and listening to the water as the wind moves it or when it is just sitting as still as glass. I think about how each species was created after its own kind and how they can’t mate with other species and continue to reproduce. They are created by design. As a teenagers, my girlfriends and I used to lay in the park and look up at the sky at night. I used to wonder how far it went. We only see a minute portion of what’s out there. Even if we look through the strongest telescopes there is so much beyond its reach. It kind of puts me into perspective. I am less than a dot from outer space and yet God cares about me, personally. That’s pretty cool. Something else I think that couldn’t be randomly fashioned is our thoughts and feelings. While I agree that they can be messed up, most of the times love, patience, anger, and frustration can be powerful forces. What would our lives be like if we didn’t have these or if they were mixed up because they hadn’t been designed to work the way they do. Frustration and anger can propel us into the next successful thing that we do. Patience, wisdom and love can raise an amazing child. Yes, I know we have murderers, rapists, selfish, and hot headed people in this world but that isn’t the norm and I agree the emotional part of ourselves can get messed up, but what would we do without empathy, passion, humour, resistance, fear, and intelligence? I look to my family and those I love to spend time with and inside of them I see well-orchestrated arrangements of emotions, humour and intelligence. Survival of the fittest didn’t have to include love. Isaiah 40: 12 (NKJV) Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, Measured heaven with a span And calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed the mountains in scales And the hills in a balance? Genesis 1:24 (NKJV) 24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. I love it that even though I am less than a speck in the whole universe that God knows everything about me, and He wants to help me with my problems. Matthew 10:30 (NKJV) 30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Isaiah 49:16 (NKJV) 16 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me. 1 Peter 5:6-7 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 1 John 3:1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. I had a strong desire to know about different religions. I wanted to know for absolute sure that I was believing the right one. I almost knew I was because of the answers to prayer I was getting but I also wanted to understand where the other beliefs came from and how they were different. I have close friends who are members of one Religious sect so it was one I wanted to learn about. A friend loaned me a VHS tape and a book on the subject. They were put together by former members of the faith. I read the book, and watched the video twice, it was interesting to see the differences in our beliefs and where they started. Within a of months, I was going to do a lady's hair in another town. She had been practicing that particular faith for about ten years. I had known her for a lot longer than that. We felt free to share with each other but mostly she did a lot of sharing with me. Right before I left home that day a scripture popped into my hear. (Romans 8:1) I had no idea what it was so I went and looked it up. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit," was what it said. I knew who that was for. This particular faith doesn't think you can know if you are going to heaven or not. They say, you won't know that until after you die. The truth is you can know. 1 John 5:13a (NKJV) These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. So after I got done doing my friend’s hair that day, I told her that God had given me a scripture for her. “What is that?” she asked. I said, “Romans 8:1.” She went and got her bible and read the verse. She asked me what it meant. I said “There is no condemnation in Christ and if you are in Him and He is in you than there is no condemnation for you and you will go the heaven when you die. She said, “Oh,” like she understood but then she said “But I’m too old to change my faith.” I said, “No you’re not. All you have to do is believe that Jesus is God and that He died for your sin and that He rose again. And then ask him into your heart.” I asked if she wanted me to pray that with her and she said “yes.” When she passed away I was so happy I knew she was in heaven. A week after visiting with my friend, I was in Winnipeg heading for a hair show. I asked my husband to let me off at a corner a few blocks away from the convention center and I would walk the rest of the way. I jumped out of the car, dropped my purse, jumped over a snow drift, picked up my purse and headed for the corner. Then I had this feeling like I needed to turn around. So I did. I walked back in front of the store doors then my thought was, what am I doing here? There is nothing I need in this store and it’s closed anyway. I walked back to the corner and a man walked up to me, he had some papers in his hand. “Could I talk to you a minute?” he asked. I knew what the papers were. I said, “Sure lets step out of the wind.” So we walked down the street a few feet and stepped in beside the store, leaving room on the sidewalk for people to go by. We began to talk. We both shared for a bit. I shared what I had learned from the tape and the book about his faith and how it began and I shared some of my answers to pray. I also shared the scripture that God gave me for the lady and what it meant. His hand with the papers in it dropped down to his side. He listened intently. Then he said “My name is Jason. I’m so glad I met you.” The man seemed so grateful. I think he had come to this country and been taught about this faith and converted just recently. I told him of the church that God had led me to go to and he wrote the name down. He said, “I’ve got to go but I’m so glad I met you.” I would call that a divine appointment. I’m pretty sure I heard angels singing as I walked the rest of the way to the convention center. Another day I had heard that a group from this faith were having a blitz, meaning they were working hard to bring people in to what they believe is true. I was in another town and I drove by their building. I had a strong desire to drive around that area a few time. I had a teen aged girl with me. As we were driving by we saw a lady and her son, who was about ten, get out of their vehicle. “I’d love to go in there and walk up to the front and tell them what I know and what I believe. I wonder if you can get kicked out of a place like that.” I said. “I don’t think I want to experience that with you.” The teen aged girl said and it made me laugh. As we drove down the street again, I saw the lady and her son at an apartment that belonged to a friend’s friend. We had just met a few days before. I surmised that they were asking her to go to their events. I got out of my car and went to say, “Hi.” My new friend told them that she would go to the barbecue later and they left. I had a little visit with her. Over the next few weeks she had me help her get free from her persistent new visitors. This lady and I became good friends. She rode with me to meetings and conferences as far away as Red Deer, Alta. We had a great time and learned a lot. There were times when they have come to my house and I have shared some of my answers to prayer with them. I could see the curiosity in their faces as I used the scriptures that went along with what had happened to me. But we haven’t had any of this faith come to our house in many many years. My kids say their leaders don't allow them to come to our house any more. I think that is true but it is not what I would prefer. What I learned from the video and the book is that these people want to believe the truth too. They need to go to Christian’s houses who are willing to spend the time loving them into the truth. They need to be given the truth, the time, the love and the patience so they will see what is true. The first thing we need to do is to learn the difference ourselves. 7/12/2016 0 Comments Can You Calm a Storm?Our lives have a lot of storms in them figuratively speaking but here I’m talking about real live roaring wind damaging, street flooding, hail making your garden turn into a freshly ripped up salad type storms. Do we have any authority over that? This might take a few minutes so you might want to refresh your coffee before we get started. Our God is able and willing to do things for us and with us. How far does that go? He is a generous God. He talks about protecting us and giving us all things, and He is able to do more for us than we can ask or imagine. Faith comes from hearing and hearing His words (not mine) and we need to be interested and excited to hear what He has to say about these subjects so our faith will grow. I have printed these verses here. Hebrews 11:6 (AMP) 6 But without faith it is impossible to [walk with God and] please Him, for whoever comes [near] to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He rewards those who [earnestly and diligently] seek Him. Romans 8:32(NKJV) 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Ephesians 3:20-21 (AMP) 20 Now to Him who is able to [carry out His purpose and] do super abundantly more than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams], according to His power that is at work within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. I’m setting a foundation here so please stay with me. So His word (the Bible) does say that He wants to do great things for those who diligently seek Him and he can do more than we can ask or think. The Bible also says that we will do more than He did and greater things than He did. John 14:12-14 (NKJV) 12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. 13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask[a] anything in My name, I will do it. So what did Jesus do that makes me think we have power over a storm? Luke 8:22-25 (NKJV) 22 Now it happened, on a certain day, that He got into a boat with His disciples. And He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side of the lake.” And they launched out. 23 But as they sailed He fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy. 24 And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water. And they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 But He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and marveled, saying to one another, “Who can this be? For He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him!” Jesus said to the disciples, “Where is your faith?” He could have been talking about their fear here and that He was in their boat so why were they scared. But they believed in Jesus enough to go and woke him up to deal with the storm. Wasn’t that what they were supposed to do? Aren’t we to pray and ask Him for help? Jesus had already been healing the sick even in multitudes, casting out demons and raising the dead. In the very next chapter Jesus sends his disciples out to do what He was doing. Luke 9-12 (NKJV) 9 Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. 2 He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. I believe Jesus had been teaching His disciple how to have faith to do these things themselves. Jesus spoke to the storm and told it to be calm and it calmed down. Jesus talked to things and things listened. He told us we would be able to do the things He did and greater things than He had done. He went on to teach them how to speak to mountains telling them if you believe then the mountain would move. I’ve never heard of someone actually moving a mountain or a tree this way but I have heard about a lot of miracles and moves of God at this point in my life that happened because of people’s faith. Jesus wanted them to speak to the problem. I will repeat what Jesus said. Mark 11:23-24 (NKJV) 23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. 24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. Matthew 21:21 (NKJV) 21 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done. (Jesus had cursed the fig tree the day they walked by it the next day and found it withered from the roots up) Matthew 17:20 (NKJV) 20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief;[a] for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. Nothing will be impossible. That is huge. He does say later that signs and wonders will follow those who believe. So if we look at our lives as believers and they seem normal, where are the signs or wonders? We need to expect things to happen. Storms can be downright scary and destructive but the Bible says that anything less than faith is sin so what does that mean? Romans 4:23b “for whatever is not from faith is sin.” 1 John 4:18New King James Version (NKJV) 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. I got a set of tapes a long time ago and the pastor taught about this very subject. He said that when he was younger he was working at a camp and a tornado was coming straight towards them. The leaders wondered what they should do to keep the campers safe. They came to the conclusion that all they could do was pray so they went outside and prayed. This young man wasn’t satisfied with this prayer so he said “In Jesus name go around.” Following the scripture that says “you speak to that mountain and if you believe it will fall into the sea.” The next morning he went out to where he prayed and could see the path the tornado had taken through the woods. It was coming straight for them and had turned and gone around their camp. I won’t tell you how my children complain when they think I have stifled a storm. They love to watch the lightning and have a bit of excitement for an hour or two. I feel like the parents in the Footloose movie when they forbid the whole community from dancing. My girls also tease me about being mean to the neighbors so instead of telling the storm to go around, sometimes I tell it to fizzle out or I say “no hail or tornadoes but rain would be nice.” You may think that’s strange so I won’t tell you about the times I have watched the weather on the internet on https://www.wunderground.com/wundermap and watched a huge cloud mass all orange and red, open up and go around our small town and close up on the other side and keep going or when they just pass us by on either side. Or it will be coming towards us with power and just fizzles out leaving us with a nice rain. I won’t tell you what fun that is. Another good reason not to tell you is because if all of us started doing this the weather could get extremely confused. My sister already has a screen shot of a red question mark to the south west of us. I privately think my speaking confused those clouds. Okay that might be a stretch but I did think it was funny. This storm was bright orange and heading straight east when I spoke to it. I watched the radar and this nice green arrowed inlet opened up inside the storm as it passed over our little town. We got a nice rain but nothing more. 7/9/2016 0 Comments Why Do Things Happen?I addressed this in, Everything happens for a Reason and I believe what I have written there, but there are more elements of truth I have not mentioned yet, and some I probably am not aware of. Some things happen in our lives because of laws that our creator put in place such as sowing and reaping, equal and opposite reaction, honour your parents and things will go well with you, and judge not lest you be judged. These laws were meant to protect us or bless us, but with sin in the world they can have negative effects on us as well. They are impersonal, meaning God is not saying ok, because you did this, this will happen to you. These laws are similar to the law of gravity. Gravity is there, if we ignore or choose not to believe it, we will fall anyway. There is also reaping from our past generations. This is where some inherited weaknesses come from (which are also called hereditary curses). Other things can be handed down a family line too. I don’t fully understand this but we see things go down through the generations like that and it is written about in Numbers 14:18 (NKJV) Exodus 20:5 These are at the bottom of the page. We also do have Father God working on us. When I was young I thought this meant if I did something wrong He was going to hit me with a bolt of lightning or punish me. I actually have a memory of the first time I swore, when I was about ten, I looked up to heaven and wondering if there was going to be a reaction. I have never been hit with a bolt of lightning or by the back of His hand. The more I’ve gotten to know Him the more I have learned what a loving Father He is. If we are His children He does work on us the Bible says. He does discipline us because we are His children and He is refining us like with fire. Proverbs 3:11-12, Hebrews 12:4-12, 1 Peter 1:6-7, Zechariah 13:9 Psalms 66:10 These are found at the bottom of the page. We do need to remember that He is a loving Father, who is disciplining and refining us. Kind of like the Father who says this hurts me more than it does you and knows the perfect pressure to put on us in order to see the changes needed. No more or less. Why do we discipline our children? He has the same reasons. I didn’t know what God’s discipline and refining looked like for a long time but when I look back I can see what He has done. I will explain. For years, since birth really, I was an insecure, timid, frightened person. I may not have appeared that way but inside, a lot of the time, I really didn’t feel safe and comfortable in my own skin. I know part of that is growing up and growing as we go but this was a messed up version of normal. I do know some of the reasons. My Dad passed away when I was six. I had undiagnosed mono for over a year at the same time. I said this started at birth, I have had a medical condition, which is hereditary, since birth that has weakened and frustrated my system and there is an element of anxiety and depression that goes with it. It is kind of rare, someday I may explain it here. God did not give me this illness, I’m sure it came down the family line. As I grew up and had a family, I found myself in lots of situations where I had to stand up for myself and my family and I didn’t have the guts to do it without tears, every time. Some of these situations were with doctors. I believed some things to be true about my family and the doctors and other important people in the situations didn’t see it. There were things I felt should be being done and those weren’t happening either. They would tell me to do the opposite of what I believed and knew to be the truth. I listened to these people and was swayed to do what they thought was right and then we would pay the consequences. Over and over again this happened. Things got so bad I felt frustration every day. I was overwhelmed many times. I had to continue to stand up for what I believed. I did a lot of praying and things began to change. And I grew stronger. My faith grew both in my beliefs about my family and about God’s help in my problems. God revealed Himself to me in many ways, His still small voice, circumstances, perfectly timed programs and prophetic words would only be to name a few. Just knowing He was there and helping me made me stronger. His discipline came in the form of feelings inside of me when I would do something or react to something in a way He didn’t want me to. I hear Christians call this a check in their spirit. I learned to listen to God this way and my reactions have changed. I got so I felt calmer in situations and I could stand up for what I believed. Eventually, a number of years later, doctors and other official people began telling me I was right. By this time I didn’t need their validation but it was nice to finally hear it. Now I can stand up for what I believe no matter what those believe around me. The whole world could believe something different and if I have the proof in my life and from God, you can look at my tightly wrapped fingers firmly gripped on what I believe and see that I’m not going to budge. And can now speak out about it without falling apart. My tears are now from looking at how amazing God is and seeing what wonderful miracles He has done for and in me. I don’t want to sound too ridged here, my beliefs can be changed but only if it is proven by His word or a revelation or check in my spirit about the truth in it. Why do things happen? I have learned about God’s laws and try not to violate them. I don’t want to reap from the negative things I might sow and I don’t want my children to reap from them either. I ask for forgiveness when I know I have violated those laws and thanks to God’s grace He forgives me. I love that God is working on me to make me stronger and to grow my faith. Nothing of what has happened to me will go to waste. In Romans 8:28 (NKJV) it says 28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. So He is working all things, even the bad, unpleasant, and frustrating things out for good for me. Why do things happen? We can see that there are a lot of reasons but something else I have learned is that by praying, through God’s grace, good things can happen, lots of them. There is a lot to learn about this subject and it has been a question of mine since I was very young. Leave me a comment if you know of reasons things happen that I haven't mentioned here or in Everything happens for a reason(the link is at the bottom of the page). Or leave me a comment if you have a thought about the subject. You can tell me to publish it or not to publish it. Numbers 14:18 (NKJV) 18 ‘The Lord is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.’[a] Exodus 20:5New King James Version (NKJV) 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, Iniquity Bible meaning: “crookedness, perverseness,” "not an action, but the character of an action.” The phrase "bear iniquity" is a standing expression for bearing its consequences, i.e. its penalty; generally of the sinner bearing the results of his own iniquity” “but sometimes of one bearing the iniquity of another vicariously, and so taking it away.” Proverbs 3:11-12 (NIV) 11 My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, 12 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.[a] Hebrews 12:4-12 (NIV) God Disciplines His Children 4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”[a] 7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. 12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 1 Peter 1:6-7 (NIV) 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Psalm 66:10New King James Version (NKJV) 10 For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined Zechariah 13:9 (NIV) 9 This third I will put into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’” 7/2/2016 0 Comments My DadIt's a little late for father's day but would you let me brag about my father for a few minutes. He protects me sometimes. He helps me when I need money. He helps me by giving me good advice for my family. He gives me good advice when it comes to my job and my life. He even got one of my daughters a job a few years ago. And much more. He’s great. But I’ll tell you the story from the beginning. I don’t remember much about my father, he passed away when I was six. I gained a step father a few years later. He had never had children and didn’t know how to be a Dad. He passed away when I was thirty two. I really didn’t feel like I had a real father for a long time. I had asked Father God a question one night and in the morning I had an amazing experience that brought back feelings I never knew I had. Before I went to bed the night before, I was thinking about James 1:5&6 where it says if you ask God for wisdom that He will give you wisdom, if you don’t doubt that He will give it to you. So I asked and believed that He was going to give me the answer to my question. I had had a few opportunities to work with kids and teens who were having trouble at school and in life but I also had bigger things I felt God wanted me to do. I asked God if I was to work with these kids or was I supposed to be doing something else. I woke up in the morning from a dream. I was in a house where the owners were in the back dining room. A lady was showing me around. I was being hired to work with disabled kids. Then we took a walk on the grounds. There was a swimming pool and another building being built on the same property. I was walking back towards the big house when I heard someone running up behind me. I could feel myself being playfully taken to the ground. The man held me gently and reached for something in my eye and said “Be still.” Then I woke up. As I went through the dream I recognized that I was supposed to work with the kids. Later I learned that the things that were being built were parts of my life that were still being worked on. When I thought through the part where the man held me, I felt an overwhelming feeling of love, love for my father. A feeling I hadn’t felt since I was six years old. Tears came to my eyes, filling them, and I couldn’t see for a minute. I wanted the feeling to stay with me for as long as it could. I didn’t know you could feel some ones love but I knew for sure that this was the same feeling I had when my Dad hugged me or said something loving to me. It was different than any feeling I got from anyone else. Then I thought about Him reaching for something in my eye and Him saying “Be Still” and the verse came to me. “You can’t take the speck out of someone else’s eye until you take the log out of your own.” Then the Words “Be still, I’m still working one you” went through my mind. So I wasn’t ready for a lot of things I thought about stepping into back then and that was okay. I wanted God’s will more than anything else. I loved the remembrance of the feeling of hugging my father. I also knew that God used that feeling so I would recognize a father’s hug. The blogs I’m writing are full of my Father’s love, and I love bragging about Him. That is what they are for. My father's love is available to everyone. Galatians 4:6 (NKJV) And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hears, crying out, "Abba, Father!" Abba means intimate Father some even say it means Daddy. Psalm 68:5-6 (NKJV) 5 A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God in His holy habitation. 6 God sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound into prosperity; But the rebellious dwell in a dry land. 7/2/2016 0 Comments Would You Follow Your Dreams?I woke up one morning from a dream. The dream was of my daughter. She had come to me with a little bird sitting on her fingers. It was really cute. It looked like a combination of a baby chick and Tweety Bird from the cartoons. My daughter was petting its head and saying “Awe Mom, isn’t it cute?” I said “Yes, It’s cute.” “I’m going to eat this birdie,” she said. And before I could say anything she opened her mouth and swallowed the cute little yellow bird head first. Then she said, “It’s still smiling Mom, It’s still smiling.” I woke up. I shook my head and thought, what was that about? And this is what went through my head. “You’re asking your daughter to do something ridiculous and expecting her to keep smiling. I thought about that. My daughter had come to me about ten times and asked me if she could quit her job. I had always talked her into continuing. I had been taught not to quit anything and not to say no to any job offered to me. So I was passing on the good work habits, I thought. My daughter was even struggling at school because of my stubborn stand and I will have to admit I didn’t see much of her usual happy nature. My daughter came to me that day and asked me again if she could quit her job. I said with great enthusiasm, “Yes, you can.” She was shocked. She immediately quit her job. A few months later she received the proficiency award for her class. I could have lost that for her if I hadn’t listened to the dream. Not long after I woke up to another dream. I was standing outside of a tour bus at the school. It seemed one of my daughters was going to go on a school trip. I wasn’t scheduled to go as a chaperone but I got on the bus. We got to the edge of Minot and the bus driver stopped and walked around inside the bus asking for tickets. I found myself standing at the side of the road because I didn’t have one. But I persisted and went to the next couple of locations and wasn’t allowed in because I didn’t have a ticket to those places either. I woke up. I didn’t even have to ask what this dream was about. There was a school trip. I can’t talk about the details but I knew what I wasn’t supposed to do. I wasn’t supposed to go on that school trip but I did more than I should have. When I look back the author of the dream knew more than I did and I should have listened. About three and a half years ago I woke up to another dream. I was in Deloraine at the medical clinic. The doctor said to me, “Stop doing hair as soon as possible.” I woke up and got into my day. Fibromylgia was taking over all my muscles and for a couple of years I had been trying to ignore the pain. The phone rang. I picked up the phone and instantly wondered what I was going to do. Do I believe the dream? Do I tell this person I can’t do their hair, not this week, not ever? That wasn’t me. I would probably go and eat some pain killers and work until I couldn’t work anymore. I took the appointment. And another. The next morning I woke up to another dream. In this one, a friend of mine who drives a school bus and has his driver’s training certificate was at the front of a big school bus. I was sitting about half way back with a kid. The kid says, “This is my corner.” I looked down and I had one of those brake pedals that are in a driver’s training car at me feet. “This is your corner?” I asked. “Yes,” he answered. I pushed on the brake a little too late and a little hard. My friend driving the bus turned his head in annoyance as if to say “You didn’t stop soon enough.” I woke up. I didn’t stop soon enough. And the next dream I was placed in the basement of my mother’s house, in my old hair shop. The message was this is how far away hairdressing needs to be from you. Working in my old hair shop, that was a lot of years ago. The next one was, it’s not the people you’re so concerned with, it’s the father and the son you don’t trust. I asked questions every time I woke up and after a lot of them a thought went through my head. John the Baptist never asked me so many questions. I laughed and I thought, yes but he was beheaded, but yes he was very obedient. The dreams continued until I was totally assured that these dreams weren’t just coming from my head or from somewhere worse. I also had assurance that we would be taken care of. I quit doing hair and within a week I saw the provision come in. Joel 2:28-29 (NKJV)28 “And it shall come to pass afterward That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions. Matthew 2:12 And having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, the magi left for their own country by another way. Matthew 2:13 Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him." Matthew 27:19 While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him a message, saying, "Have nothing to do with that righteous Man; for last night I suffered greatly in a dream because of Him." Yes, those ones were to keep Jesus safe but God has spoken to other people in dreams also, both in the Old Testament and the New and to a lot of people who are living today. Acts 16:9 A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." Acts 18:9 And the Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, "Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent; |
Archives
July 2017
Categories
All Answers To Prayer Being Lead By The Spirit Creation Eternal Life God Knows Us By Name God's Love Hearing God Holy Spirit Gifts Life Lessons |