Pacifier To Milk To Meat....

Glory to God our Father!  I pray that you have had a Holy Spirit filled fall.  I certainly have, and I have many brothers and sisters in Christ who have joined me and have been a part of that.  May the God who saved you put a fire in your belly to be hungry and searching, all the while being joyful and satisfied!  What can you expect from the God of the universe?  Nothing but something so enormous that we can only wait to meet Him for His grand conclusions to these mysteries.

How can I convince you that many of you are evangelists?  Preachers and teachers?  How can I convince you that we have hit the snooze button for at least the decades that I have been an adult and can attest to this?

But, share in this Good News:  There is a quake under your feet and non-believers feet, and don't deny that you can't feel it.  Let me tell you what it is if your church isn't:

As I "sidewalk" evangelize, 100% (so far) of my listeners have made such intense eye contact that it is unmistakable that they are waiting for people like you and I to tell them the truth.  Yes, I am waiting for the swearing and spitting on me and gnashing of teeth.  I pray that all will have good soil in their heart, and much prayer goes into this mission before and after I start walking, two by two.....(Mark 6:7)

The Lord has made it clear to me to be hated for the Gospel.  He has called me "lightening rod".  I have previously blogged His instruction to me, "Have loose lips for me, Melissa".  I have spent enough time testing and trying these revelations and yes, they come from the Lord.

The Lord has also revealed to me that He is now coming to women in masses to spread the Gospel.  I have had this confirmed about a dozen times since He put that on my heart.   The Accuser of the Brethren lately has given up on me on that topic.  At least at the present time.  Satan knows I have CLEAR instruction from God that women are called, in masses to preach, teach, evangelize and more.  There seems to be no cap on what God is expecting at this time from women.

I drove to the east coast the first week of October on a Holy Spirit journey.  I visited South Carolina.  We went online and prayed for the Lord to show us a Holy Ghost church.  We found one.   In Georgetown, SC we spent 3 hours in fellowship and worship with a church with a core of Spirit filled believers/weepers.  And here is the kicker:  Two women took the opportunity to preach and teach (one was a weeping Jeremiah!) at this service.  I believe the one woman said that the Lord put it on her heart to preach just days before.  She was so "eating meat".  Yes, JESUS!

1 Corinthians 3: 1-2  Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly--mere infants in Christ.  I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.  Indeed, you are still not ready.

Now, remember when Paul wrote these letters to the churches, in some instances it was just a couple of years after the churches were established.  See this in 1 Thessalonians.  All it takes is a good Life Application Study Bible to read these details.  I am not a Bible scholar.  I have merely been studying the Bible for about two years.

You will see that Paul wrote this letter in A.D. 51, and the church was established 2-3 years prior to that.  My point being:  If you have been walking with Christ for 5 or more years, and you are not advancing, take note of Paul's instruction to this church after this short amount of time.  You can read this epistle in about 20 minutes.  As you read it, mull over the fact of my previous paragraph:  He wrote this strong instruction just 2-3 years after the church was established!  Please, brothers and sisters..........move from the pacifier to milk to vegetables to meat in your journey.  We need to advance the Kingdom!  You need to become stronger in the Lord in these end times!

1 Thessalonians 5:14 And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.

Yes, my journey may be accelerated.  I can't test that, because we all need to keep our eyes on Jesus and not others.  It is nearly impossible to gauge our journeys, if we attempt to compare them with other believers.

As the preacher, James McDonald, who has a radio broadcast, Walk in the Word http://www.jamesmacdonald.com/, states:  One thing we know is that we all need to progress in our journey.  (loose quote).  And believe me, he doesn't mince words.  I have been listening to him for approximately 9 months, and I can say that if you listen to preachers like John Piper and James McDonald, you will move on to meat rather quickly.  The Word of God is preached by these two men .  The entire/full Gospel.  Why wouldn't you want to hear that?  If you are enjoying your "prosperity preachers", no wonder.  I beg you to at least "pepper" your listening to include conviction and repentance preachers.   It should stretch you to quit thinking about "What can I get?" to "What can I give up to feed the hungry and spread the Word of God?".  You will also hear of sin, hell and repentance.  Unfortunately, you can get an "Oprah" Gospel a number of places.  There is a little too much life application preaching going on.

Yes, The Oprah Gospel allows us to dwell on ourselves.  It allows us to dwell on our depression, financial heartaches and health problems.  We should hear about these things.  But, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is centered and founded on this and in this order:

1) The 10 Commandments
2) Our Sin Condition and need for repentance
3) The Cross
4) Faith to Believe

The unsaved need to hear these four things.  Jesus is the Antidote to our poison of sin.  We will go to Hell if we do not accept the Antidote.  We will go to Hell if we do not realize we need the Antidote.  We will go to Hell if we do not repent and change.

The saved need to progress on their journeys and continue to be sanctified until the Day Of The Lord, or until they fall asleep, waiting for Him.  I can go into how they can/will do this, but it is a heart issue whether they want to or feel a need to progress.

If the saved do not yearn to grow, they will not experience heaven on earth.  They will not possess the Joy of the Lord during the extreme trials that we all know life will provide us.   As Dr. David Jeremiah puts it, "We will always drift towards evil if we are not intentional to stay holy" (another loose quote).  I will not further go into detail, but I dare not drift.  Scripture can be interpreted two ways:  Either you can lose your salvation or you were never saved.  I will not venture off of this path to put myself into either one of those treacherous conditions, and I will not wrangle with you on that topic.

All I can say is this:  Why would you not want to progress?  Or is this life on earth too cozy?  This is not your home.  Or, are you making this your home?


May you be blessed today and all days.  May you rejoice in your salvation and share it.  May you be a light on a hill.  May you throw that basket off and shine brightly.  May you be hot, not cold or lukewarm.  May you pray to be hated for the Gospel.  As I found out, many, many love to hear the Story.  They are just waiting for you to tell it.  Please see the Alan Jackson video below:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpfsZZ9X5n8

Three Martinis Vs. Three Twinkies

Blessings to you!  Glory to our Father!  May He continue to inspire me to type this blog.  If I look to the left or to the right (Proverbs 4:27), may He convict me, remove the blog or inspire me to change, quickly!

How do you like the title?  It is so interesting, isn't it?  Actually, this blog will center around sin and how sin simply equals sin. 

As I have typed previously, the Lord has sanctified me in numerous ways.  You could call it healing, you could call it blessings or you could call it sanctification.  I am attempting to iron that out.  I don't stress over such things.  A redeemed sinner is grateful for his Bondsman.  He is grateful for his new Owner.  He doesn't sweat much of his new life wondering how he got there or why is journey is so delightful in the present.  He just praises.  I do find that I am opening new doors continuously, as I do examine my journey.  More grace abounds as I do this!

One problem of being a new creation at age 42, was that I was surprised at how all of our journeys are so different.  One of the issues that I believe comes into play is running into Christians who have gotten stuck on a "sin category" mentality.


I cringe when I hear someone say, "Wow, can you believe their testimony?"  This is typically regarding a person who lived quite worldly, God came into their life, and they shed their old ways.  Supernaturally, of course.  Yes, their testimony is tremendous.  We folks in this category are actually humbled to such a point, that we painfully see the "mature" ones really don't have a true testimony.  Theirs may go something like this: "I really didn't have any big sin problems.  I wasn't a drinker or a druggie.  I don't have much to tell about my transformation".  "I was born into the church and didn't fall into sin". 

Yes, there are some who had this life.  But in my opinion, there are very few.  If they do have this type of testimony, the problem is, is that they see their gluttony sins, gossip sins, US Magazine sins, dividing and unnecessarily complaining about their church sins, worshiping their children sins, laziness sins, not spreading the Gospel sins, build up my money so I can retire and not volunteer sins as NOT SIN.  And certainly, they claim to not possess the sins of gambling, drugs and alcohol and sexual sins (from their pasts). 

Actually, to me, a more refreshing testimony is one from a person in the above paragraph.  But, when will I hear one? 

Did they really crumble and have to crawl to Christ?  We all need to.  Charles Spurgeon has two awesome books on the Holy Spirit. (These are cheap books at the Christian book stores and are  approximately $5.00 each)  He speaks quite frankly about the alarming number of church going Christians who are truly not born again.  I read this and tremble.  I don't celebrate in this.  I pray that the Lord will keep my heart fleshy, bleeding and quivering, never hardening as I walk longer with Him.  

What is the problem?  Pride.  Read Andrew Murray's book called Humility, The Journey Towards Holiness.  (Some of the best writer/evangelists/preachers are deceased.  There are timeless works out there to treasure).

Somewhere, quickly along the line, and we can assume within the first few years of The Acts Church, the Devil creeped in and convinced Christians to "measure" sin.  This relieves us!  Ahhh.  Yes, I didn't ever do THAT.  We look around and find comfort.  We love to hear the prostitutes' testimony...... 

Let me recommend another great book:  It is by Charles Stanley and it is called The Blessings Of Brokenness.  If you have not lived a roller coaster, cops in your driveway life and feel you are set apart to not have to be "broken", please read this and tremble.  Ask the Lord to show you the path to be broken for Him:


Matthew 22: 43-44   Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.  He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed. 

My interpretation of this is that I would rather be broken than crushed.  Have I been broken?  Yes.



2 Corinthians 4: 6-9  For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.  But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that his all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.  We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 

In conclusion, here is the synopsis of this blog: 


My past life of 3 martinis equal your present 3 Twinkies (my abstinence and deliverance from alcohol vs. your current struggle with gluttony--and not accepting that as current and unrepentant sin)

My past fornication vs your present book, Fifty Shades of Gray.  (my deliverance from sexual sin vs your unrepentant and hardened heart regarding true sexual sin)

My past Las Vegas wasted time trips vs. your lottery ticket (do I need to explain?---remember:  gambling at the foot of the cross for His garments was a detail put in the Gospels for a reason)


May you read this and be convicted.  May I be convicted of my sin as well.  Lord, change us, chisel us, mold us. 

Ouija Board Strategies In These Last Days

Blessings from my home to yours.  May the title of this blog grab your attention to read on about how the Devil has attempted to steal, kill and destroy from the time you could first remember.


Revelation 2:4-5  Yet I hold this against you:  You have forsaken your first love.  Remember the height from which you have fallen!  Repent and do the things you did at first. 

Revelation 3:3-6  Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent.  But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.  Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes.  They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.  He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white.  I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.  He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.




I don't know about you, but there is such freedom to read the book of Revelations without fear. We tremble in the presence of the Almighty, but our days of fearing the unseen and the future are over, as born-agains.  What is it saying to us?  To the churches?  Do you see the relevance for today in this book? 

I first started reading the Bible at about age 9 years of age.  I also read the newspaper pretty regularly as well at an early age.  I boldly read the world events and editorial sections of the paper, along with the Gospels and Revelation.  I grieved over world hunger and wars and such.  This intercessory gift was present always.  My parents were curious about me.  I was the baby of 5 girls.  I had an imaginary friend named Sharon for quite awhile.  I was a dreamer, a David.  A Joseph, that is for sure.  I was musical and creative and loved to play alone (with dolls, pets and my imagination).  

I started life like most of you.  Singing about Jesus in Sunday School.  Bible School and learning with vigor about Bible characters.  We sang some Negro spirituals in Jr. Choir at church.  "Do, Lord, Oh Do Lord, Oh Do Remember Me".  See this Youtube link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCpQF9LYylU


I don't know how our American Lutheran Church liked it, but my volunteer choir leader Shirley, had us sing some great Jesus songs.

Yes, as children we can sing "Jesus Loves Me" easily.  Then comes the teen years.  The wicked Jr. High years.  The loss of interest in church.  The draw to the opposite sex.  The cliques, the pimples, the early hardships.  The exposure to alcohol and cigarettes.   The rigid, legalistic parenting that we go home to, that doesn't explain the "why" behind the "no".  We get a message to keep out of their way and don't embarrass us with blemishing the family reputation.  We don't hear about the exact heartaches they suffered, because their generation and the generation before doesn't talk about their mistakes and certainly never apologizes.  Once we are off the hip of our mothers, we are shooed away and the intimate relationship ceases.  This continues into life.....

Many of us went from skipping around singing Jesus songs, to quickly growing up without a way out of our sin. 


I personally suffered of this.  I read the Bible very early and no one to explain the beauty of the answer!  A Redeemer!  We have a convicting preacher in our church, but no way out of our sin.  The term, "Born Again" was not used in any of the churches I attended, and even now, it is rare to find a church that states this necessity.  Other terms are used, yes, but regardless of any negative connotation it was given possibly in the 70's, it best describes (and is Biblical), what is necessary for us to have New Life. 

I hope many of you reading this can relate.  But, let me continue to The Ouija Board Of Life.......



 

But, what if in this mix of life someone gets born again? 

Here are the pitfalls for you to beware of:  1) Someone talking you out of a believer's baptism.  2)  A church that extinguishes the Holy Spirit.  3) Mature Christians trying to suppress your joy, or telling you that it will "pass".  4)  Healing of the Lord being shunned.  5)  The constant negative discussion of the speaking of tongues and its place in our lives, if we are indeed gifted with it.  6) Not spending time in the Word, daily.  7) Understanding that you will need to make a change in who you hang out with, even if it is family.  8)  Christians telling you about your "freedom" in Christ so much that "their" religion is based on so much grace that you need not quit habitual sinning.  9) Hanging on to a pride issue that will talk you out of getting on your knees daily in prayer. 



On to the conclusion of this blog:

Don't let this happen to you.  So, like me you had a rough start.  A late start.  But, are you on the bus finally like me? 

The title of the blog is to explain that Satan can have you on a chess board situation of life.  A Ouija Board of sorts.  His demons are especially interested in you, now that you are born again.  They will try to convince you of all sorts of half truths.  They will attempt to entice you to not worship with your heart and soul.  They will put certain people on your path to derail you and many of them may be "Christians" with all kinds of advice. 

You need only one Teacher.  That is the Holy Spirit.  The Gift that Jesus promised.  Get quiet, get alone and go into the wilderness for the time that God has gifted you with.  When you come out of that desert time, be watchful and aware. 

I am coming out of my desert time.  I am still filled with at least the same amount of joy I had the day the Lord touched me.  I have many, many obstacles in life, too many to list.  I still am so in love with Jesus and what He did for me, that it is difficult to imagine not feeling joy over these worldly circumstances. 

Put on your Spiritual Eyes.  You will need them.  Keep off the Ouija Board of life.  Walk in the Spirit.  Keep faithful.  Ask the Lord for revelations on those things you do not understand.  Find a good Holy Spirit church. 

Never quit praising the Almighty!  Amen!!!

Repent. It is the only word you need to know.

Blessings from the Midwest.  The Lord is good and gracious and I cannot praise Him enough!  I have my list of struggles.  I do my best to not let them be "a part of me".  May I advise that you do the same?  How quickly I make idols of my problems.  Be weary of your words, who you counsel with, how many you counsel with.  I am learning.  Sometimes the painful hard way.  So, we go on praising and worshiping our Saviour!  He deserves our praise! 

I just finished reading the book, The Harbinger.  I think I am going to go and buy many copies to give away.  This may be another choice of book for evangelizing.  More Than A Carpenter is one I give to people who are unbelieving or severely questioning their faith.  The Harbinger may be an all around good book to spread the Gospel, as there is the salvation message for the "religious" in the end, as well.  A book of warning.  It will shake you to your roots.  It should, just as most sermons should in your churches. 

Reading The Harbinger actually put me into a newer state of awareness, and at this point, I am still processing what it has and is revealing to me.  Many in our community are speaking of revival of incredible significance.   The birth pains are present.  I have heard prophet after prophet speak of this and what is being revealed to them through dreams, signs and revelations.   Yes, I mean now.  Shut your Bible and pray if you continue to imagine that "that book" is about the past.  It is breathing.  It is pregnant.  It is ever-present and perfect.  It is trying to talk to you about today, tomorrow and yesterday.  Put your thinking-cap away and read with your heart.  Dream, imagine, wonder, pray.  Become the child He wants you to be.  If you call Him Father, you are a child.  Throw away terms such as baby Christian and mature Christian.  I see too many get stuck on these and label.  Look at people's hearts and that is all you need to know.

Being a new believer (I personally own decades of "religion"), I am trying to put together the past.  I am piecing together Nazi Germany.  I am piecing together the Old Testament and its prophesies.  I am piecing together how in the earth, when I was 6 years old, abortion became legal.  How, in our country, African Americans were not able to have the same freedoms as my parents, in 1960!  Obviously, the Lord has had me piece together my ENTIRE life up to the day of my salvation.  As you have read about in my previous posts, it has been a rapid, bitter-sweet journey. 

I can weave around all kinds of ways in these posts, but my hope is to keep you entertained enough to stay with me. 

The turn of events in my thought process, since reading The Harbinger and more closely watching world events is that I am greatly concerned that the crumble of America may happen prior to the Rapture and this is important for me to consider. 

Do you want to continue reading?  Push through. 

After my being filled with the Holy Spirit approximately 1.5 years ago, I quickly read the New Testament with hunger.  I also read book after book about everything from Hell to dead churches to spiritual warfare to fasting.  The cool thing about these books is that they all lead me back to the Bible.  I get a "reference" from each book that puts an interest in me to read a certain book of the Bible. 

Then, after finishing the New Testament (I am reading through it over and over again still), I started reading the major prophets.  Daniel was actually revealed to me in a dream (Daniel Chapter 10), and I read that with wonder.  It certainly helped me understand spiritual warfare more perfectly, along with prayers to be answered and why some take longer.   I speaks to me, personally. 

Most interesting, is a note I put in my Bible next to Isaiah 26:5-6.  I wrote "Twin Towers". 

I can't imagine a born again Christian not reading the prophetic books of the Bible and not correlate the warnings to Israel (the Jewish people wherever they were and the actual country) over and over (and destruction that followed) to God warning American to turn and repent.  Yes, I easily see the message needed for America, founded on Christianity, to repent.  Turn and change.   I found this to be a reality to me very quickly after reading the Bible, as a born again believer.

It is difficult to find Christians who dare go this deep.  Shallow is not the way.  Ephesians 3:17-18 states: So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.  There is such a "depth" to the scriptures.  How can you continue to be shallow? 

What a relief for me to find these Scriptures.  I was someone who was told all of my life, the contrary of most of what is Biblical.  Praise and Glory to God for His Word! 

What does America need to repent?  Do I dare list?  Let alone legalization of abortion and same sex marriages, let's just look at the saturation of alcohol in our country.  It is incredible what has happened over the last 10 years alone.  Numb people don't make sensitive to the Spirit Christians.  Born again Christians should quickly ask after their conversion if alcohol is really part of God's plan for them.  Many do not. 

Parents don't have Bibles on their coffee tables, don't read the Bible and don't read the Bible to their kids (I am guilty--now I see the light) and they gripe that there is no prayer in school.  Parents, wake up!  You didn't even start it in your home!  No prayer in school?  Do you pray from your heart with your husband and kids?  Or do you settle for a memorized prayer at supper?  Or do you watch on Sunday morning when you get your newspaper the neighbor going to church while you sip from your coffee mug? 

I am guilty of many of these things.  But, there is One who set me free and my guilt is gone.  Now, I pledge a warning to all to kick it in gear and get with it.  Jesus following is not a fad, it is not a phase that you go through as a "new believer".  It is a way of life!!!!  I can't number the people that indicated to me the opposite.  "Oh, I remember when I used to feel about Jesus that way".  Wow. 

Parents, grandparents, any and everyone.  Please read your Bibles.  Read The Harbinger.  Lead others to Christ and do it now.  God will do His work, but He needs people to reach people. 

Here is an interesting story to end this blog with.  This is how infantile so many are about conversion and the need to repent:

Arthur Blessitt, a great evangelist spoke on this:  He was out and about and came upon a car crash.  He stopped and tried to help.  The person in the front seat was injured severely and he didn't realize there was another in the car.  This person was semi-conscious.  Arthur was speaking to this person of the Gospel and the need to have Jesus as a personal savior.  There could have been only moments left is this person's life.  Then, a person chimed in from the wrecked car, in the back seat.  This person has the nerve to say, "Quit talking to him that way.   You are going to scare him."

God forgive this person in the back seat.  God bless Arthur and all of us trying to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  God help heal our broken hearts over the pharisees comments, jeers and road blocks. 

Please, all that read this.  Pray for God to activate your gift of evangelism.  Amen. 

Franklin Graham simply exercising Romans 1:16

http://www.christianexaminer.com/Articles/Articles%20May10/Art_May10_01.html

Romans 1:16   I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first the Jew, and then the Gentile.

Acts 4:29-30   Now, Lord consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 



Glory and Praise to our Heavenly Father.  May you find this blog to be inspiring. 

I heard about Franklin Graham through a Christian Television Network.  (see article at the beginning of this blog) I have to be honest, what I heard mostly was that he was told to not use the name, Jesus.  That was enough to tick me off enough to write down the information and make sure I visited the situation later. 

Let me assure you, we are in perilous times.  We are in times of a blessing of the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit, but as well we are seeing an increase in pestilence, depraved minds, deceit, God-haters, arrogance and perversion.  (Romans 24-32,  Luke 21:7-11).

You will see an incredible increase in prophetic messages from the great preachers and authors of today.  Dr. David Jeremiah has written in the last couple of years, book after book speaking of the signs of the times.  He is incredibly respected, but he is obviously under the gun with the Holy Spirit to get this message out.  Praise the Lord that the book of Revelation is being shared and spoken openly without excuse or blush.   See the warning at the end of Revelation regarding adding or removing anything from this great book.  (Revelation 22:18-19)

On the most eternal, high note:  We are seeing a flood of the Holy Spirit in my community.  I pray you are as well. 

I am talking to person after person who is experiencing dreams, signs, huge Holy Spirit promptings including significant fasts and increase in prayer.  Real prayer.  Not prayer for stuff, money, jobs or health.  Prayer for revival, for the Lord's Return.  Prayer on knees with weeping.  Let me tell you, there are so many that are weeping and being moved by the Spirit that I speak with. 

I love to find these people, or they find me.  They are tired of the ho-hum Christian life of "I am a weary Christian".  How dare we act that way.  The Lord put on my heart months ago that He is a jealous God.  He said this especially to me during times of group prayer and personal prayer of praise to Him.  I have found the conclusion to that revelation to be that He is growing impatient with complaining Christians.  Christians that want to limit the work of the Holy Spirit.  Christians who have set in their brains what "they" want out of their religious life.  Many Christians are not asking the Lord what He wants of them.  It may have gone on so long in them that they don't even realize the blindness that Satan has set in.  Become innocent, young, new, open, believing, surrendered and hopeful and you better do it quick.  There are many souls to reach and if we are complaining, stone faced or stiff necked Christians, why would they ever want to have our life?  Or worse, if we are boozing, gambling, selfish, sex-lusted Christians, we are hypocrites to them.  Ask the Holy Spirit to help you with your weaknesses.  Or are you having too much fun?  It is time to make a choice.  Habitual sins have no place in your life.  You can be freed.  There is absolute freedom in Christ.  He will heal you from these sinful practices. 
 
The neat thing is that the people that seek me out or that I encounter and can sense that they are eager to speak of Christ and His love, is that they are incredibly open!  They are not afraid to speak of their dreams, visions and promptings.  No longer are we worried of being labeled "crazy".  We already know that is a given.  It is worth sharing our supernatural!  Discernment quickly shows us who to share what with.  I am working hard on that.  I am sometimes surprised by who is disinterested in speaking of beautiful, glorious Jesus things.  I will not waste my pearls to be stomped on any longer. Working in health care my tender heart was broken during an audit of a chart and a physician labeled a patient "hyper-religious".  Guess what?  Go ahead and label me.  My salvation is at hand.  My fire to try to touch others and spread the Gospel is too strong to be worried about some doctor and his diagnosis.  Does it surprise you the things I blog that I see going on in this world?  Keep coming back, as I have so much to blog that is evident to me. 

Before I close I want to point out some really great things that I want you to concentrate on.  Look at the Christian music available.  Chris Tomlin is so very blessed, along with Christy Nockels, Mercy Me, Casting Crowns and Newsboys.  Lots of lyrics from the book of Revelations and the prophetic books of the Bible.  Look at the internet and the availability to view a sermon from preachers of yesterday and today!  Look at the cable TV channels of TBN and The Church Channel. 

There is such a blessed movement in our favor.  Everyday people are having the Spirit poured out on them to produce these songs, lyrics and sermons.  These are born again people, now being very obedient and active with what the Lord is asking them to do.  Many have left their professions to full time ministry.  Is this a possibility for you?  Are you getting any promptings?  Alot of people are, that never dreamed they would be called into ministry. 

I pray you will concentrate on the goodness of what is happening.  The out-pouring!  Be a part of it and don't hide in fear.  Be active to share your testimony, but most of all do not be ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Amen.

There is power in the name of Jesus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOyjD5Zw2ew

Yes, there is power in the name of Jesus. 

Are you able to say the name "Jesus" five times out loud, sweetly, without feeling uncomfortable?  Try it.  Can you say "God" more comfortably?

Arthur Blessitt, the man who has carried a 12 foot cross across the globe (check out his website) is a great evangelist.  He put it nicely:  The name of Jesus makes people uncomfortable because it causes conviction. 

The name of Jesus causes great emotion.  Terms such as Jesus Freak and Jesus Hippie are not exactly soft descriptions.  They bring out feelings of "going overboard".  Cult type thoughts come to our heads.  Sandals, robes, long hair and beards. 

God seems to have anointed me to be an evangelist of sorts, and I am walking the walk He intended for me.  It is ever evolving.  It is exciting.  Because He has told me to have "Loose Lips For Him", it doesn't really feel like I am obeying.  It feels like this is what I am supposed to do:  To spread the Gospel against all odds.  If I am having a conversation with you, it is nearly impossible to not speak of beautiful things.  If you want to just talk negative, I really struggle with that.  It is in my soul to speak of healing, restoration, new life and grace.  Those are automatics.  Do I sometimes get on a negative road about my past and my life:  Yes.  But, my gracious Holy Spirit Helper actually taps on my right shoulder (Yes, He really does) and I know I have gone too far.  Then I stop and redirect my conversation or just end it on a quick, positive note.

Today at our church our Bible School kids performed about 4 songs.  They were dancing and wiggling and shouting.  They were so great.  They sang and shouted the name "Jesus" so lovingly.  They didn't wince. 

We need to act like that. 

I remember Vacation Bible School in our Lutheran church growing up.  I believe I have blogged on that before.  It was wonderful.  It was not like our weekly pomp and circumstance Sunday service  Almost hauntingly chanting the Apostles Creed.  As if we would be struck dead if we smiled while we said it.   But, ahhh, Vacation Bible School.  Jesus you were there.  Cookies and green Koolaid and Red Rover.  Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.  Jesus' pins to wear.  All kinds of crafts to take home. 

I know in my heart I accepted Jesus as my Saviour as a kid.  I just didn't know what to do, other than to just go to church and Sunday school.  The growth in my Sunday School was memorize the books of the Bible and Luther's Catechism.  There was no talk of a personal relationship.  Just check off your stuff and get confirmed.   There was very little, if any Bible studies for adults.  Once you were confirmed, you were "done".  Yes, the cake was done, hallelujah.  Really? 

The great preacher, Charles Spurgeon wrote this, " The sad fact is that when you enter many of our places of worship you will certainly hear the name of God mentioned, but except in the benediction, you will scarcely know that there is a Trinity.  In many places dedicated to the Lord, the name of Jesus is too often kept in the background."

Do you want to follow some great preachers of our day?  Check out Creflo Dollar and TD Jakes.  They will make your soul quake.  The will arise in you the Holy Spirit, if you are willing.  Jesus is knocking.  Please answer that door!!

I have heard and read of great stories of people saved during airplane and car crashes that shouted the name "Jesus"or "Jesus save us" during the impact.  They lived to tell that they were saved from fire and great injury while the ones who just screamed, "We are going to die" perished. 

As I grow in my relationship with my Father, it almost causes physical pain when I hear someone say the Lord's name in vain.  I have to tolerate this at work.  It just is painful for me.  I hear the Lord's name profaned in so many ways in this person.  "Jesus Christ", "God", "Jesus".  Our words are so powerful.  We cannot hide from our Creator.  How do we ever rewind all of this that spews from our mouths?

Let me tell you this:  I so enjoy blogging, bragging about the Alpha and Omega who saved my sorry soul.  I get energized to type these eternal messages.  It is an outlet for me to be heard.  It is in my bones to spread the Gospel, in any way possible.   As I told a few preachers, "Just give me a microphone, will ya?" 

I ask that you consider what the name of Jesus, spoken out loud by you, does to your inner being.   If it is uncomfortable, count that a blessing that you are reading my blog.  You are reading it for a reason.  Get on your knees (Yes, that is important) and ask the Father to reveal to you any hidden sin.  If you are not sure if you are filled with the Holy Spirit, get on your knees and pray for this treasure, essential for your salvation.  Find a Bible packing church.  Open up your Bible and pray that the Lord will take the scales off of your eyes to reveal its Glory.  You will notice that it is illuminated once you are filled.  The actual Word Of God will bounce off the page, take you down roads you never dreamed and make you starving for more.  The work of the Devil, especially for decades has hidden the Gospel from people who think they are saved.  If the Bible does not come to life for you, you need to realize that and take action.  Humility is key.  "Lord, open up the rooms in my heart that you need access to.  Reveal my Gods.  If they be even food, alcohol or sports.  I put them before You, and I am sorry".  Search and seek and get on your knees daily.  Read the Word daily, even if it doesn't make sense.  It will.  It took me about 4 months!  And, WOW! 

Blessings my sisters and brothers.  Keep searching and learning.  Praise His name always. 



Acts 4:12  Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.

Philippians 2:9-10 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 

Parental relationship restoration, even after the grave.

Oh, Glory to God!  Many tears today.  Tears of great worship earlier at church and now, tears of reconciliation. 

Here is a verse to get us started off:  Exodus 20:12 Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

I have heard preaching on this commandment and many times, we leave off the part, "So that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you."

Do you see how important it is to do this?  Maybe to lengthen your life?  And how could that all be true?  Does God really kill people off like that? 

Well, unforgiveness will "kill" you and everything around you.  And yes, I believe our lives are shortened because of the stress of unforgiveness and bitterness, leading to cardiac issues and cancers. There is the very touchy subject of  bad health choices including over-eating as a tool to soothe our pain.  This kills a little more slowly, through type II diabetes, hyperlipidemia and hypertension.   

Part of the Holy Spirit filling me 16 months ago, is that if you let the Spirit work in you, you will go through a process.  This is painful.  Many people don't let this process happen.  They end up born again, but wearing masks and miserable again.  The process begins when you feel the Spirit tug on your heart to open it up and let the past be healed, situation by situation.

Are you brave enough to let the Spirit clean your house?  Sweep out the garbage?  I am.  And I did.  And it is still happening. 

In my personal experience, I had other people barely let me finish my sentence when I would share that I was going backwards and dealing with my past.  So quickly they would say, "You know, you shouldn't have to go back to the past as Jesus has already forgiven you of that".  Or I have heard, "Don't look back too long on those items".  I heard this after only a few months of conversion!!!  Be on alert that if someone doesn't let you finish your sentence about a faith item, or they rush to give you an answer, they are not waiting on the Holy Spirit themselves.  They are talking out of their flesh.  Get your eyes on Jesus and keep them there.  Read the Word daily and keep it that way.  You are worth it. 

If I would have listened to that, I would not be where I am now.  The Lord works in His timing, not man's.  I want you to be aware that listening to "man" in many situations after you are living and walking in the Holy Spirit, is dangerous.  There are so very, very many born agains that stopped at their salvation.  They did not complete the process, which takes the rest of their natural life to do.  And there are many born agains that are not living and breathing the Holy Spirit Life.  It is a cheap version of Christianity.  This is a life lacking true, raw faith.  The kind of faith that raised Jesus from the dead. 

God has the ultimate best for you, and typically it will not be exactly clean and easy to continue to be sanctified.  Yes, it will be worth it.  Yes, you will glorify God for the tears and cleansing.  I am a witness to this!!

My day today included listening to my dad's Korean war stories tape.  I have not heard my dad's voice since the day he died in July 2000.  It was sweet to hear his voice.  It felt just like yesterday.  He taped this in approximately 1994.  What a step for me.  I was on the floor in my bedroom, at Jesus' feet, crying, as I was listening to this.  That is a wonderful place to be.  Don't stop at getting down on your knees.  If you are lead, drop all the way down to your face on the floor at His glorious feet.  How precious.  The late pastor Adrian Rogers, as a young boy, actually dug a hole in the ground and put his face in the dirt.  If you understand this act of humbleness to God,  as I do, I am very happy for your mature Christian journey. 


Also today, I listened for the first time to a cassette where my mom taped me playing the piano in 1995.  She and dad were talking and laughing and I could hear my voice as well.  It was incredible to finally listen to that tape for the first time, today, as well. 

What Satan means to destroy, we can reclaim.  If I would not have continued my journey to my painful past with my childhood, I would have bought Satan's version of the past. 

You see, when I grew up, I didn't feel things were right in many ways in our home.  But, it is all you know.  It was not very good at times.  It was really weird.  But, after leaving the house at age 18, that was my "normal".  And there you go.  You get married and you end up marrying people who also have strange family dynamics and you both just keep repeating another generation that did not deal with the problems.  And then comes items in our lives such as divorce, alcohol abuse, emotional abuse and neglect and inappropriate everything else. 

Are you a hypocrite to call this out in your home and stop it?  I used to think so.  That is a lie of Satan.  But, our Lord gets ahold of you, and if you decide to rewind to your childhood, you see that you can be honorable to your parents, at the same time you take a stand in your own home. 

Did I always honor my parents?  Unfortunately, no.  If you read my previous blogs, you will see that.  I rebelled.  Now, it is so refreshing to take off the mask and admit that I rebelled.  It is wrong to rebel.  Period.  I did not honor my parents by not listening to them. 

After I got "saved", I did the typical reactions that you do.  Just as when you grieve a death, I believe there are stages of painful growth after being born again.  I got mad.   I got mad at denominations of churches that I attended for not leading me to Christ.  I felt lied to.  Why didn't anyone tell me about this?  Why are not churches opening the Bible during service?  Why don't churches use the term "born again"?  Why didn't the church read all parts of the Bible in our weekly readings? 

Do I still have grave concern about many main denominations of churches because of these flaws?  Absolutely, yes.  Am I mad because of my situation?  Not any more.  You see, I had to find Jesus myself.  He was still knocking on my heart, through all of that dysfunction of the "church". 

Now, on to my parents.  Did I think they could have been a better example to me?  Yes.  Do I understand why they weren't.  Yes.  They were mirroring their parents!  They were just surviving most of the time due to their own problems. 

Do I want to live like my parents?  No.  But, I do want to take the good things they did and expand on them instead on magnifying the things I do not agree with. 

They are not here to defend themselves.  They are deceased.

I took out two letters my mom wrote me prior to her lung cancer death.  She died a horrific death, but luckily Morphine kept her painfree.  Her handwriting is very poor.  My mom suffered incredible anxiety during her last 7 months of life, fighting cancer.   That, in itself is a living nightmare to witness.  What Satan blinded me of, is that I read these letters and put them in a drawer for years.  I could only see snipits of negative from them.  How unfair!  You see, I took them out a few weeks ago and cried over them!! They were loving and lovely and complimentary.  They were intimate and fresh and touching.  Satan will blind you from the Scriptures, but he will also blind you from finding beauty in things.  Things that will cause you to advance in your faith.  He knows you well.  Demons have been studying humans since they were flung from heaven.  And they have been studying you since birth. 

Let me say this:  If you have been offended in any way:  Sexual abuse, spousal abuse, infidelity:  What many of us do is drop into a depression instead of anger.  And I understand that this is actually very unhealthy.  We get depressed instead of getting angry at a person that deserves to hear our appropriate anger.  I did this many times in my life.  I saw loved ones do this as well.  It didn't solve anything in the end and the abuser did not face the wrath of what they did. 

Our culture has us walking into the Halloween shop for another mask everytime we face a roadblock.  When we will start solving things?

My trips to the cemetary are so wonderful now.  I cry so hard at times, though.  I wail out to God at times. Not mad at God, just cry.   But, I am so in love with my mom and dad now.  Healthy love.  My mind of Christ now allows me to just drift into the good times and good ways they tried to protect us from the world.  Those daggers of pain don't come very much at all now.  The Lord keeps revealing the love they had for me in so many instances.  The tree house we made as a family, the way they loved me to play the piano for them, the way my mom loved me to do her hair and makeup and nails.  My dad having me help him chop firewood.  Small talk with dad.  Cleaning dad's barbershop for a quarter.

My rebellion has run its course.  I rebelled against God and my parents and if I could change both, I would.  But, I cannot.  What I can do is change my home, now.  To be a good example for my children.  Ask my adult children for forgiveness for my past mistakes.  Show them a woman in love with Jesus Christ.  A Bible reading, weeping, changed soul, who happens to be their mother.

Would you join me, brothers and sisters in Christ?  Will you clean out your closets for your generations to come?  Even if you will face resistance, tears and pain for a short time?  Will you be that kind of warrior?  And end up loving your childhood for what it was, for what it did for you to now have eternal life?  Our parents gave us life.  Let us just tweek the recipe of life for the next generation of Jesus Followers. 

God Bless you all.