A Day of Change

    

     Today is a great day. It is a day of change. Today we have seen prayers answered and miracles happen. Today is the first service in our new church. The church God made possible. In other words the church that God gave us. Pastor Hall says it is our million dollar miracle. It is our miracle not just because it is beautiful with the red carpet and the polished wood furniture or because of the artful baby grand piano just waiting to play The Old Rugged Cross or I See The Crimson Stream of Blood. If that piano could talk it would be saying "play me softly so that souls will be touched by the very spirit of God." For this we have prayed.
     We realize that our service to God is not in a brick and mortar building but of things much deeper than that. We are just blessed with those things but our calling is not about us. It is about them. Those people out there who walk to and fro in our city. Those people who are lost but are blind to their state of despair. Those people who are hurting inside and don't know where to turn. That is where we come into play. We must show them
    
    

Stand Your Ground

Stand your Ground

She was dressed for the occasion because the festivities called for that. To her husband she was the most beautiful lady ever. He cherished her. He had another wife who had given him children but still, it was Hannah that he loved. But that was not enough. Hannah had things, possessions that would have made any women happy but not so with Hannah. She wanted more, she needed more.
The party surrounded her. She could hear people laughing, and joking, and sharing pleasantries, as she sat quietly uttering not a word. Her heart ached within her chest as she excused herself walking slowly at first and then running away to a place where she could be all alone. On the steps she sat and then slumped because the burden in her heart would not allow her to sit up straight. Her soul cried out even though she could not be heard. Only her lips moved as the tears streamed down her face. From across the way Eli the priest saw her. Who could this woman be he thought. He watched as she cried and her body jerked with  deep sobs as if she was in agony. She must be drunk. He walked over to her thinking she was a mess. "Put away thy wine" he said to her in a stern voice, a little disgusted at what he saw. How could she be here at such a joyous event in a state like this. Her eyes were swollen and red. By now even her attire appeared disheveled. In a quiet hushed voice racked by pain she looked up at him, her eyes still moist from crying and said "No lord I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD."
Hannah had to have children or die!
         
     And now I ask how long has it been since we have pulled ourselves away from the fun things in life, The things that make us laugh. When have we allowed our hearts to meditate on that which is not pleasant. When have we been sober enough to realize that it is not the fun things that our children need, it is the grounded word of God. It is to instill in them that living for God is fun and necessary. When have we cried out to God so much that our voice left us and all we felt was that deep seated grief as if we have lost something precious. In fact the most precious thing in our lives. We better wake up! We better do something! We better train our ears for the call! The call to win our children and to snatch them back from the very hand of satan. Oh God! Have mercy upon us if we just stand quietly as they are drawn away and we do nothing to stop them. It is imperative that we develop plans, and games and music that will speak to their hearts and put the word of God into them. That we show them by example how to worship. That we create an atmosphere conducive to the moving of the spirit. The main thing is that we as their Grandparents, aunts and uncles, moms and dads must do everything we can to win them because satan is ever reaching, ever enticing, and at all times trying to pull them away. We must stand our ground.
    

It's No Time To Sleep

It's No Time To Sleep

     In the early morning while the world is sleeping I awake. No not by choice but yet by choice. It's 1:30 a.m. Yes I could roll over and go back to sleep as my body desires to do but again my thoughts roll over and over in my head and sleep eludes me. I am consumed with a burden for souls. I realize that some people who read this may think I am crazy or at least a little off but not so, this is what a burden feels like. Tears roll down my cheeks as I cry out for a world that is lost and more real to me, for our children and grandchildren. I am reminded once again of the verse in Luke 23:28  where Jesus told them. Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. Who will pray in this day when things are so hurried and the world says things don't matter. That it is ok to live like you want and dress just any old way. When they call good evil and evil good. I want to shout to the top of my lungs. People of God wake up! Pray! Arise in the early morning and late at night. Bow on your knees at noon time and early afternoon. Wherever you are whatever you are doing stop and cry and pray for God! the one true God to look on us with compassion and love and save our world. To forgive our sin. To send back again the spirit of old time conviction. Conviction that will call us to pray once again and to arise out of our sleep because people are dying and going to hell and who will pray for them if not us, if not me. Conviction that won't let us slumber and sleep spiritually. Conviction that makes us look at ourselves through magnifying glasses and see who we really are, what we really believe. Conviction that will make us change from the comfortable to the necessary, that will wake us up in the middle of the night because our people are lost. Who, I ask will hear that call and stand in the gap and make up the hedge and do the uncomfortable to make a difference. Please God! Let it be me. Wake me up tonight, and tomorrow night, and the next night, and help me to pray, to weep, to cry for souls...That is what he did in the garden of   Gethsemane and that is what our calling is. Thank you God for choosing me, for trusting me with this gift. Help me ever be found on my knees before you until my world is saved.

    

Until

Until

How long should we hold onto a promise...a hope...a dream...in search of a miracle? The answer to this is Until...

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary the meaning of the word until indicates the time when something will happen or come true. When we have prayed and prayed for an answer we should never quit. We should continually pray for the focus of our need until. Until when you may ask, and so I say, Until you either die praying or you see the miracle come true. Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen! I do believe that a lot of times people give up way to soon and some give up a moment, literally seconds before their miracle is about to occur.

The way I see it, It doesn't matter if I see my prayers come true or not. I know that this may seem crazy but if I never see anything else come true, I have already seen enough to know that my prayers are not in vain. Would I love to see each one answered? Why yes I would. But until...I will just keep on praying. Keep believing, Keep waiting for that miracle and keep holding on to the promise. I will keep on Until... because Webster says Until is the time when something happens or comes true.

Luke 24:49   

And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.

A Soldiers Heart

A Soldiers Heart

At 3:30 a.m. I got the call. It woke me up out of a dead sleep. At first my thoughts were fuzzy and I did not quite comprehend what was going on. My husband lay asleep beside me and I could hear the steady rhythmic sound of his breath as he slept. Awake now I gathered my thoughts. At first I thought I would just go back to sleep all the while knowing that was not going to happen. Yes I could have shrugged it off and drifted back into the welcome warmness and comfort of that place before dawn when you sleep the best but I knew I was being called to do something else. I quietly slipped out of bed. I headed for the living room to the corner of the sofa where I pray these days. I would love to kneel but must sit due to aching knees from years of work and misuse. I sat quietly in the dark with only the warm glow from an antique lamp and the aquarium. I thought about the time that God spoke to Samuel as a child and how at first he did not recognize the voice. The voice that would soon seem all to familiar. It is that voice that I hear now... No not audible but just as clear. I knew that I was being called to pray, for what I did not know. I just wait and listen and quietly utter words of thankfulness and praise and slowly, deliberately I am drawn into a place of deep things where battles are fought and won. I pray for souls and soon feel the deep groaning of the spirit. The groaning of travail. The same kind of groaning felt when babies are being born as the pain absorbs the whole body and leaves one to exhausted to move. I cherish this place because I realize that even though it is painful it is important to the kingdom of God. After a while my agony turns to tears and I feel that spirit wash over me cleansing me and I know that I have touched the very throne of God. I have heard it said that prayers never go away but instead roll over and over and are forever continual throughout eternity, that they ever remain before God reminding him of our every need, of souls who are important to us. I know that every soul is important even the ones we may not have a name for. That is why it is important to care...To cry out for the ones who we don't even know. To pray for the beggar on the street and the drug addict who is lost in the hopelessness of addiction. To pray for the children with no one to love them and the grandmother who has been left alone. You see...We don't have to know them but we know they exist and need us to stand in the gap for them that they might be saved. That is why we are here. To win them. To fight battles for them that they will never even know about until one day in heaven when all will be revealed. So God use me. Wake me up at three a.m.  Help me to never love sleep so much that I don't listen and shun the very thing that I have been called to do. Help me to fight this battle as the war rages on. Give us I pray souls by the thousands and hundreds of thousands. Let my vision be greater than the simple things that I see. Give me I pray a soldiers heart. 

1 Samuel 3:8

"and Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child."

Sober Up

Sober Up

 When we live for Jesus and give our life to him we will certainly have ups and downs...We are human aren't we. Life is both a mixture of beautiful and sad. Sometimes we have to sober up and I don't mean from strong drink. Sometimes we become intoxicated with life and things. Things that can absorb the best part of us if we are not careful. Sometimes we have to snap out of it. To snap to attention and realize what are the most important things in our life. The most important things are not things after all but people. People who God has allowed to cross our paths. People who we have been given the opportunity to influence and witness to. People who have been entrusted to us by someone greater than we are. What if that person we meet was sent to us for hope. What if we could make a difference in their life. What if that one word we say could win them for eternity. What if we let that brief encounter slip through our hands and laugh and joke and say nothing? We have been given a great job, a sober responsibility. Yes we laugh and joke and have fun. We love being funny and having people laugh and want them to like being around us but even during laughter we should have that little voice in the back of our minds whispering win them...Pray for them...Reach them...  And if they walk away the same we should feel sadness.  We are after all the people of God and our whole mission here is to make a difference. To save our dying world.  To reach the lost. To spread the gospel. So I say to myself , self....Sober Up!!!! .I will not be content until I have won a thousand souls...no ten thousand...no a million...no a ..............

1 Thessalonians 5:6

"Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober."