Today I am going to challenge you with that which you hold most dear – your children. I asked a boy about his faith, but he couldn’t tell me about it. He actually said, “I forget what they told me to say. When I told his parents, they were mad at me for doubting his faith. It is far better to doubt and work with him until he understands than to assume he understands and doesn’t. He could go through his whole life thinking he is saved, and he isn’t.
Don’t ever be afraid to make sure your kids are saved. You must question children. They tend to say what they think you want them to say. You can ask them to say “I love Jesus,” and they will say it freely. They must understand that Jesus did it all for them. It is not what the child says that gets them saved, but what Jesus did. They must get saved like everyone gets saved. If they don’t understand, then they wait until they do understand,
I knew a lady in college who had a 3-year-old daughter. One day, the lady came to me all excited. She said that her daughter got saved last night. No matter how badly you want her saved, a 3-year-old cannot understand substitution thought. Now, try not to be anxious, be patient, and trust God. He loves your kids more than you do.
Satan is a master liar. He told Eve that nothing would happen to her if she ate of the fruit that God told her not to eat. She had had no experience with him. She listened, she ate, and sin came into being. He lied. She ate and sinned. Today, nothing has changed. He lies, we listen, and we sin.
In New Zealand, we knew a man who killed his boss. He told us that something kept telling him, “Do it, do it, do it, do it.” Satan lied, and he listened and killed his boss, and the man is in prison today. So Satan lies. Our man shot his boss. Satan lied; the man listened, did it, and sinned. He is still in prison today.
Do you think those thoughts are just your own? No way. They are put in your head, and you believe they are your own. He will tell you all kinds of lies. My aunt told me God told her which slot machine to use in Vegas. Eve was not experienced with Satan, but you are. But you had best be wise. God will never tell you to do something wrong. I know that you can argue that gambling isn not wrong, God tells us to put away every appearance of evil. ( II Peter 2:7)
If something is wrong, forsake it. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be a stumbling block to anyone. I want people to see Christ in me. It isn’t worth it for me to gamble. When people look at me and see me gambling, they only see a woman of the world. I cannot believe that Jesus gambled; if He wouldn’t, I wouldn’t either. I do not want to be a stumbling block to anyone. As Christians, we must give all to Christ and let Him use us. People are dying and floundering without an anchor. They need help. They need us. Put away all appearance of evil.
Becoming Wise Men: Leading Others to Jesus This Christmas Season
As Christmas approaches, we all tend to reflect on the Christmas story and reflect on the Christmas story, and reflect we should. No greater story was ever told. We read of the 3 wise men who followed the star to where the baby Jesus lay. The 3 wise men are rightly labeled “wise”. They were called wise because they believed truth.
Did someone once lead you to the Lord Jesus? They can only lead you. You must accept and be wise…wise enough to accept the truth. I was only 11 years old when my Sunday School teacher approached me and asked how wise did I want to be? Actually, my mom began the process. Both my mom and my Sunday School teacher were my stars. My mom had me in church since I was 2 or 3.
Was someone your star? Did someone lead you to Jesus? If so, then you are blessed.
Now it is our job to lead someone else to Jesus. If you don’t know how then LEARN. That’s not so hard to do. Ask your pastor or staff, for starters. Ask your pastor to recommend a good book that is accurate and that will steer you straight. Not all books preach the truth. Many books out there will steer you wrong. Trust your pastor. There is no greater blessing in the world than to lead someone to Jesus. Just see their eyes light up as they see the truth. Usually, they are so thankful as they grasp your love for them. Not many people ever care for their soul.
This Christmas, give someone the gift of life. Eternal life. You can make a difference.
Angel Janet and the staff of Living Angels pray you will have a merry Christmas, and if you haven’t done so already, we pray you will be wise and accept the truth of Jesus as Lord and Savior.
God bless you until next time.
Finding Unshakeable Faith: Lessons from Noah’s Ark
One of my favorite Bible stories is Noah and the Ark. It is intriguing and challenging. God told Noah to build a boat big enough to hold two of every animal on earth and every human that wanted to go.
He was told that it was going to rain enough to flood the earth, and no one would believe him. No one would believe him. No one except his family. His wife and sons and their wives. People laughed at him, ridiculed him, and didn’t believe a word he said. Still, his wife stood by him.
His wife believed in the same God as Noah. I wonder, would I believe that faithfully, that strongly, would you? If all the world was against you, would you still believe in Him?
Well, I believe that I would. You see, I know how He has made me and you. We as His children, are so much more special than we have ever thought. So, we need to look at this for a minute.
We are victorious. Rev. 2:7, We are blessed. Gal 3:9. The light of the world. Matt 5:14 The salt of the earth. Matt 5:13. The apple of His eye. Psm 17:6.
We are beloved of God Rom 1 of 7. We walk in Christ Jesus. Col 2:6. Do not be fooled, the ark did not save Noah, God alone did that. Remember, He sealed up the door. You can turn on the alarm in your house and lock all your doors and windows, but your house doesn’t keep you safe; only God does that.
I sang as a child. This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine. What is that light? Well, it is Christ in me. The hope of glory. Col 1:27. I’m going to let Christ be seen in me.
I believe that Noah knew all of this. He believed when no one else did. He stood amongst the laughter and jeers. He did have his family with him. He had God’s approval and blessing. He had all he needed. We don’t need the unbelieving world when we have Him.
Now, take what I am about to say with heart; your life will make sense, and you will be safe and secure. We have the peace of God, which passes all understanding. Phil 4:7. Now you don’t need the world or the things of the world. You have confidence, love, security, and the promise of eternity. Jon 5:24. How much better can it get?
God gives every believer a gift. There’s the gift of teaching, giving or exhortation, and many more (ICor 12:8-11). A gift I don’t see working much anymore is the gift of hospitality. We don’t tend to have people in our homes but go out to restaurants instead. Why is that? I used to think I didn’t want people over unless my house was super clean.
So, it stops you from asking others. We miss blessings when we don’t use our gifts.
Many people in the church need a friend. Maybe a neighbor. Perhaps a family member. Pray about it. Ask God who needs an invitation. Older people often don’t get asked. It would be a huge blessing if you got to know them. Pray about who to invite.
When I was a pastor’s wife, I decided to invite everyone over, one at a time, to share a meal. I asked them to get to know us better, one family at a time. I invited them after church. I prepared dinner on Saturday and put it in the slow cooker, and our meal was all done when we came home on Sunday afternoon.
The table was set. All was ready. I made it as easy as I could. I lit a candle. I wanted people to feel at home and special at our house.
You don’t have to be a pastor’s wife to be hospitable. God has told us, “whatsoever your hand findeth to do, do it with all of your might” (Eccl 9:10).
If hospitality Is your gift then you are blessed. To be used by God to minister to others is indeed a blessing.
“Los Angeles, California, USA – March 25th 2011: Tribute in memory of Elizabeth Taylor at her star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a few days after her death.”
He gave me beauty for ashes, and it is in that verse that my heart is today. I have been through a trial, and yet the blessing within has blurred the trial. I have had a bad case of covid.
I was put in the hospital because I couldn’t walk. It was part of covid.
After a couple of days, I felt better. One night I couldn’t sleep. At 5 am, God began to talk to me.. I had been searching for what to write about in my next blog, and God began to tell me, not verbally, but in a still small voice.
At 5am I became so excited. God was there and He woke me up. I had not been so close to God in a long time. He woke me up out of my stupor. He gave me beauty for ashes, and I want to talk about that.
God made me beautiful! He gave me beauty! God, the King of the Universe, gave ME beauty! And, yet, do I believe Him? Well, I wasn’t. I looked at my face and saw only flaws. My eyes are too small, and I have two ugly brown marks on my brow. My lips are not symmetrical. Obviously, I wasn’t agreeing with Him!
Then there is the world’s idea of beauty. Everyone thought Elizabeth Taylor was beautiful, right? You looked at her and saw no flaws! Let’s look at your pastor’s wife. Beautiful? Flaws? Is she more beautiful than Elizabeth Taylor was? The world would laugh! How about you?
How about you? Are you beautiful? Do you look at yourself, and say, “No! I’m not beautiful!” like I did?
Well it is time to find the truth. Is the world right – was Elizabeth Taylor beautiful? How about the pastor’s wife? You? Me? Which is truth?
God is truth, and all men are liars (Rom 3:4). What does God say? He said He gave us beauty for ashes (Isaiah 61:3). He gave beauty to you and me. What about Elizabeth Taylor? I think there is a qualification, and that is you must be born again. We must look at people as God does – through His eyes. When He sees you He sees who you really are! He sees you in truth. He sees the beauty within, and He sees you perfectly! No flaws!
That is beautiful! So, who is right? God? Or the world? God or me? If I’m not seeing me through God’s eyes, I am wrong! Hey, guys! I AM beautiful! My heart is right, attitude is right, my yieldedness is right. I am saved! (Right, too!) The world sees my flaws, but God doesn’t see them.
Now with Elizabeth Taylor, she could have been saved, but I see no evidence of it. Her beauty was likely skin deep. So is our pastor’s wife more beautiful than Elizabeth Taylor? In God’s eyes, yes!
What about you? Yes! Yes! Yes!
Now we need a safeguard handle to hold on to. All around people are telling you to “think outside the box!”. What are they saying? I will put forth an opinion. To me, that box is God Himself! He created a place safe for believers. It is a hedge around us strengthened by His Spirit. His angels. Himself! He created a place safe for believers. Inside the box is security, protection, love, freedom and anything else we need. It is the Biblical world view, however, wolves in sheeps clothing have managed to infiltrate. They introduced the world view, and it is contrary to the Biblical world view. God is saying, why look outside the box? You need nothing else! Can you think of something better than I can provide? What answers are you looking for? Outside of God there are no answers. “Wake up, people!”, God is shouting in His still small voice. Listen!
Beauty is within His people, but His people believe the worldview too often. They think Elizabeth Taylor was beautiful, and “I am not”. Oh, if we could only just trust God, and nothing else, our world would change dramatically! We must return to trusting everything God says, and not think outside the box! Truth! God gave us beauty. Believe it!
My Mom was a good mom. She got us 3 kids into church ASAP. Her gift was that of a servant. She seemed to love waiting on people. I have no doubt that she was a Christian, Her faith was real, but she had one fault. She was a worrier. She worried about things that might never happen. We might have an accident, or we might be raped or get cancer. She seemed to worry about everything. Although she was a Christian, she had not been taught to trust God for everything.
I believe that level of trust is uncommon amongst Christians. Christians haven’t heard it preached much except by my husband. Total yielded is new to many. We began to learn it when our 13-year-old son had anorexia. In his conciliating, we were told that he and John, and I had self in the center of our lives, and God wanted to be there. When we are in the center, we put ourselves above God. We become wiser, more loving, and more caring, at least in our own imaginations. We forget that God is God and we are not.
Worrying is another act of putting yourself above God. It is as though worrying can solve your problem, making you wiser and more clever than God. However, In the end, you will see your problem is not solved. Worry is a sin. If we are believers, we know that sin is forgiven, but it can rob us of blessings and stunt our spiritual growth. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want anything robbing me of my spiritual growth.
If you have an unsaved or wayward child, don’t worry, PRAY. Then trust God to answer that prayer. He said in Matt 21:22, “Whatsoever you ask in prayer, believing you shall receive.” Even if all feels dark and there is no end in sight, you still trust God and wait on Him. You cannot trust your feelings, feelings can lie to you, and Satan can influence your feelings. All you can trust is God.
Years ago, at our church, we had a watch night service. They asked us to bring our favorite Bible verse. Well, I didn’t have one. I thought about it and prayed, and God led me to John 8:32. AND YOU SHALL know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”
At that time, John had been called to preach. We had planned on going to Missouri to go to Bible College. We had just bought our new house. I was conflicted. I wanted to stay in our new house and make it a home. I was tired of renting and moving, renting and moving, but I knew that God was in our moving. I realized I had been worrying. I had three kids to feed; we were leaving good jobs. But I was young then and had many lessons to learn. My verse once again set me free. If I really trusted God, He would take care of our family. Yes, He would set me free because that was the truth.
I started to apply for food stamps and let the government feed us. After all, John hadn’t found a job, and our cupboards were bare. However, I read Isaiah 31:1 in my reading, “Woe unto them that go into Egypt for help.” God had said don’t get the food stamps, and I will take care of you. He sent a family to us with many groceries, then gave John a job. The truth was that God would supply all of our needs, and He did. That was the truth, and it freed me from worry, anxiety, and fear. I learned that Egypt is a type of the world, and we are not to let the world take care of us. Since that time, I have been set free over and over.
God has given me a much more beautiful home, we eat all the time now, and He has restored all that I had held dear. I trusted Him, and He never let me down. I have finally learned that freedom is free. All that I have didn’t cost me a thing. Truth only costs you trust.
One of my favorite biblical heroes is Caleb. Caleb wanted that mountain. Remember? The mountain must have been beautiful, flowing with foilage, streams of water, and probably flowers. To Caleb, it was his dream. There are two meanings to a mountain. It can mean like Caleb’s. Something good. It can also mean something bad. It can be an insurmountable problem, something beyond your control.
Maybe you have a rebellious teenager on drugs or alcohol or whatever. That is a big mountain. What is your mountain? You need to identify it, or you will see it is not solved. You cannot solve it yourself.
My Insurmountable Problem #1
My son, as a young teen, was anexoric. There was no way I could make him eat. Every day I would pack a lunch, and every day he would bring it home, not eaten. I would scold, threaten and cry buckets. It was an insurmountable mountain I couldn’t fix.
My Insurmountable Problem #2
Then one year, I had another mountain. I had become so angry at my husband and son that I stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind me, and began walking, crying, and praying. God gave me such peace at that moment I knew I had to give God complete control.
God Wants Control
I was holding control of my life, and God wanted total control. So I let go, and God gave me complete peace. I let go of my mountain, and God took over. I didn’t even remember the problem, but God took over and used them more than I ever dreamed.
God will never play second fiddle; He will never be co-pilot. He must be in the center of your life, and you must let him, or you will never know the blessings only he can bring. If you want to be in control, he will let you. It has been said; God is a gentleman. He will never force himself on you.
Yield Yourself To Him
Completely yield yourself to him and watch those mountains crumble. Oh, maybe not right away, but one day. My mom prayed for 50 years for my dad to be saved, and one day that mountain crumbled.
Remember, Jesus is so powerful that when you yield to him, God doesn’t see your sins, He only sees the perfectness of Jesus, and because you are in Christ Jesus, He sees you covered in his blood.
I’ll bid you ado until next time, and God bless your heart.
Are You Soaring Yet? If not, today is the day you start Angelogy 101. As I’m contemplating, I imagine I see frowns, worry lines, and sadness on your faces. Oh dear, this will never do.
Do you know how to boogie? Neither do I. So we’re just going to have fun and pretend we do. Now on your feet and boogie to the right and boogie to the left and boogie up and boogie back. Now turn around and clap your hands and smile. Any friends or children – SMILE!
Stand up again, who said you could sit? Now are you sad or mad, depressed? Stomp, stomp it out. Stomp, stomp, stomp it out. Keep stomping until it is gone. In the meantime, think about puppies, bunnies or something beautiful. Do you have joy in your heart? Then it is time to do the angel happy dance.
Here we go. Skip four times to your right and four times to your left. And shake, shake it baby. Shake it in joy. Shake your arms, shake your legs and shake your hands and raise your arms to God and shout amen, amen, amen. Look at you, you’re smiling already. Who can look up and God and frown. Well maybe if you’re. not a Christian. If so, then get on board. Get on your knees and ask God to forgive your sins. Now accept His sacrifice for your sins. This is a heart thing. So open up your heart and let the sun shine in.
Smiling now? The is so much to smile about. Do you know, all of you. That you are wealthier than 80% of all people on earth? Do you realize that you have a house, a car, food on the table, and your kids go to school free and so much more?
Now let’s look at Angelogy.
Thankfulness is first. You should have learned it from your mother but maybe she didn’t learn it from hers.
Honesty. I learned it from someone I loved but learned how to lie. She said if I want anything, I have to lie to get it. Sad, isn’t it? Fortunately, I found God and he set me free. This is basic angelology.
Next time we will learn more about Angelogy. Until then, keep dancing the Angel dance and keep smiling. If you stop smiling then you have to do the stomp until you start smiling again.
