Is America going to risk incredible loss for a few more minutes of playing?

Let me explain my title.

I woke up today on the eve of our country about to make a life-altering decision. We’ve made this decision many times before, but our values, integrity and principles have changed over the years. We’ve let what we stand for as a nation get influenced by oftentimes misleading choices that are not founded on Godly promises. And we are paying for it.

I remember when I was a child, we followed the “street light” rule. When all the kids up and down the street played together in the evening, we kept our eyes on the street lights. When one of us saw that the light had come on, we instantly STOPPED our play, and everyone scampered off home.

To today’s youth this probably sounds absurd. But every houseful of children followed that same rule. When the street light came on it was time to stop playing and get home. We probably didn’t realize then that it had to do with our safety. All we knew was that it cut into our playing time and fun. But because every kid’s household enforced that one rule, no one felt the exception. Until a family moved in one street over and this little girl was different. I remember the first time she was playing with us, and when we all stopped and headed home that she spoke those shocking words. “I don’t have to go home. My parents don’t make ME stop having fun.”

Her words became a scuttling earworm that began to twist its way into all of us. We discussed this at length with her the next time we were playing. We wanted to know how come she didn’t get into trouble? Why did her parents not have the same rule for her?

I don’t remember her answer being satisfactory to any of us, but it always made us wonder what was it her parents thought about what was right about raising kids that our parents must have missed the memo. Did our parents just want to keep us from having fun?

When I became a parent years later, guess what rule I incorporated into raising my son? You guessed it, the “street light” rule. Why? Because I understood now. I could look at my own motives and see that, like my parents, it was that I had the best interest in keeping my child safe and actually enabling him to have more fun the next day.

We have a Heavenly Father who has an even lovelier “Street Light” rule.

I want to tell you something that some of you might not believe. NO ONE will ever love you like God. There is no earthly savior, political belief, candidate, or manmade god that will ever save us. The world had a Savior, and they crucified Him on a cross.

But take heart—God planned for that to happen. His love for us is so great that we will never really understand the vastness of it until we stand before Him one day. But in the mean time we have our running orders that He has put into place to help us live safe godly lives.

The reason that the children of Israel got into trouble over and over was that they kept forgetting God. They kept leaving Him out of their lives. They—like that girl in my neighborhood—followed words other than God’s Word. If we had all let her words sway us and let them continue to worm their way into our actions, there’s no telling what would have happened in my household! I wasn’t going to risk extreme punishment for a few more minutes of playing.

I love it when I start my day off with a scripture that comes to my mind and then when I open my email devotional—there it is!

Deuteronomy 30:16 instructs, “For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience (humbly) before Him, and to keep His commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.” Likewise, Deuteronomy 30:19 urges, “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.”

Voting is just another form of having a voice. The eminent question is which will our nation choose? The voice of a failing household with no restraints to protect us and give us a chance to enjoy another day? Or return under God's protection and loving kindness?

Can we turn our nation back around from where it has slipped by one person’s vote? I think so. If every one of us takes this Word to heart. God puts it down to “You and me.”

If you—if, I will humble ourselves and pray and seek His face. The key word here is HUMBLE OURSELVES. If in humility of mind and soul we will come back to God, confess that we have let His Words slip from our nation, our homes, and our lives, he says that He will hear from heaven and heal our land.

It's not the politics of this hour that will save us, it’s who will restore the Word of God that was laid as our Foundation as a Nation.

We have another chance to look up not at a street light but at a Cross where the Light of this world hung! I hope we will all humble ourselves before we vote and head home.

I bless you and pray that you will let your voting choice lineup with the Word of God.

 

 

Read the following if you want A real eye-opener!

Every day I get a couple of devotionals in my email. Many times, they have been like a letter from the Lord deposited in a timely manner. Today was one of those times.

Bible Reading
“There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,   a heart that devises wicked schemes,    feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.” - Proverbs 6:16-19 NIV

This scripture completely describes the shape our nation is in right now. It’s sad. But more than stopping at just being sad, there is a solution. And it depends on the Body of Christ coming to God, humbling ourselves, and praying for forgiveness.

THEN, God says, “I will hear from Heaven and heal your land.” It doesn’t get any clearer than that. I pray every day another Word with promises. That first, I’m to pray for all those in authority and then for the Peace of Israel. Then I can continue with my prayers for family and friends and myself.

Some mornings, I have to admit that I fail to do this. Usually, within moments after I have started my day already involved with other activities, I get that small nudge from the Holy Spirit that I’ve gone ahead of Him. What a foolish thing to do on my part. When I do this, my day is like being in a choppy sea. Nothing goes right. I know this happens—so why do I neglect to do what I know is right? My human nature is still alive and kicking within me. Just because we become a Christian doesn’t mean that WE are not still in there somewhere wanting to do things our way.

The wonderful part of Christian living is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who was sent to help us. Every time I think about the fact that the Third Person of the Trinity of God lives right inside of me and is there to help me live my life 24/7 that alone should make me more careful to seek Him first every day.

I’ll ask you a question that I have to answer myself frequently—how many times have you wished that you had stopped and heeded that inner voice of reason instead of plowing ahead with your own will? I have done this too many times to count. But I’m learning to do it less and less. Usually, what has taught me to stop before I run off the rails, is looking back at the consequences that I had to endure and be rescued from. I could have saved myself a whole lot of pain and suffering.

But God is such a loving Father. I can come back and sit before Him knowing that I am forgiven and still loved. He already knows that I am going to mess up and I know that I’ll be welcomed back just as though I never made a mistake.

Being a Christian is the most amazing lifestyle and yet so many people refuse God’s offer of salvation because they either do not think God exists or that they do not need to be forgiven.

Please, dear reader, don’t let the day come when it will be the last time God drew you and you end up wishing that you had listened and responded.

Our country is at that dangerous crossroads right now. I pray every day that we are not soon looking back wishing that we had stopped, prayed, and repented by humbling ourselves.

If you are someone who prays as I do, I will pray that you do not grow weary in well doing. Pray for me too.

I bless you.

 

 

 

 

If hurricanes bring us together—Just Imagine what Christians praying could do!

I pray every morning for all those in authority in our country. Why do I do this? Because it is how the Lord instructs us to begin our prayers. Before I pray for anything else or anyone else, this Word brings into focus what is of most importance. It doesn’t matter what else I’m asking of the Lord, if I don’t live in a Godly Nation, my life will not be the same.

Every day the possibilities of America becoming even further away from the principles and faith that it was established upon is growing. As I prayed this morning, I thought about all those in authority who are Christians. Did they get up this morning and start their day in prayer? Are they asking God to help them take the responsibility they have been given to govern this country seriously? And even more, do they realize that they cannot do it without God’s help? But I couldn’t stop there. This is what God has to say to all of us who are Christians.

2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

So, this morning I asked myself, what if every Christian no matter where they are or what they are doing this morning, would stop, turn their total attention on God, and come together and pray—what would God do?

He's already told us what He would do. The question is what will we do concerning this instruction in the Word?

We’ve just seen four major hurricanes sweep through our states. And because people come together in times of need to support one another, then what if Christians were to come together to do the most beneficial thing, we as Christians could do for our country?

PRAY—act upon our faith and do what God says to do and see then what He will do. There have been other times when Christians have gathered as one unit and prayed together. Maybe because of the serious state of chaos our country is in right now, we will do it again. I think we are standing at a crucial point in the history of America. 

I close this posting with my first line—Imagine what we could do if we all came together and prayed.

I bless this wonderful Nation we live in.

I bless you.

 

There’s no GOOD hurricane—certainly not Milton.

I have been in North Florida for five months and have been concerned about three hurricanes. Two of them came right through where I live. Milton’s path took its toll on the middle of the state.

Once again, we wake to the devastation wind and waves can do to the landscape. What took years to develop is destroyed in a matter of hours or minutes. The most precious loss is that of lives. There is nothing good about that loss or any loss.

It always leaves me with a deep sadness that I can’t even put into words when I watch the coverage of the possessions of people that they worked to acquire now sitting alongside the road. It’s heartbreaking. I have been through many hurricanes and for some reason, I have been spared what these dear souls are experiencing. The most I have had to endure is the loss of power for several days. Times like these make you look at life in a whole new light.

While still being alive is of the utmost blessing, having to stand and survey at the moment everything you own in this world floating around your feet has to be a close second.

I always utter these same words, “How does anyone survive the loss? Where do you even start?” And then I can’t even imagine what these people are going through.

I’ve said to others while watching these events unfold, that I would hope with all my heart that anyone who woke up to their lives having been spared such tragedy would be grateful! I hate to have lost everything and think that some people who didn’t even have a disruption of anything weren’t being anything but grateful.

And yet, today there will be people who will complain about the smallest, most stupid inconvenience. These people who have been affected would give their right arms to have their lives back intact.

I am thankful this morning that my life is intact in every way. I’ll go about today and days moving forward being cautious about uttering a single word of complaint.

My prayers are with those from the two other hurricanes as well and now Milton who are still trying to piece their lives back together.

As a Christian I take my heart to the Lord and am reminded that the Word doesn’t say that ALL things are good—clearly, they are not.

But what it does say is that it gives us the hope that in whatever situation we find ourselves that God will take it and WORK it together for our good.

I’ve had other events in my life that I have found great comfort in this Word. I hope that the world will be kind and gentle with the feelings of those who have lost everything.

I hope those of us who know the Lord and our lives have been spared will be thankful today and lift those less fortunate up in prayer.

I bless you.

  Hurricane Helene

I’m sitting in North Florida right now awaiting Hurricane Helene. It’s strange to look out my second-floor window at the trees across from me that are barely moving. It is an overcast grey day but other than that it looks like any other normal rainy Florida day.

If it weren’t for the barrage of weather reports one would never know what is looming just miles away. A storm with a magnitude of over 120 mile-an-hour angry winds accompanied by a deluge of water ready to be dumped upon our coastline is imminent.

We know that it’s coming. It will not be a surprise to anyone once it reaches our state.

It’s making me think about the proverbial calm before the storm right this moment or other times in my life when there was an approaching personal storm that I didn’t see coming. Life has a way of doing that to all of us. The last one I went through was health-related. But as you can see—I’m still here.

I weathered the storm of a year’s worth of winds and rain assaulting my body. As we often view the results of the aftermath of hurricanes, there is always widespread damage, and the landscape is sometimes permanently altered.

Life events that come upon us unawares can also leave us permanently altered, but they can also leave us better for their coming. That’s my case. I learned about the close abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. I knew His voice and had experienced His comfort numerous times before. But there’s an even closer awareness one experiences in times of complete dependency.

I’m a needy person. I admit that with no shame. I understand the Word in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 where Paul says that his weakness is really his greatest strength. I know that might sound confusing but until you experience it personally it does sound like a contradiction.

There’s nothing like waking up in the middle of the night feeling so overwhelmed that you can hardly breathe, and the Holy Spirit softly comforts you enabling you to fall back to sleep. The truth is that no matter if we are facing an external weather-induced storm or a personal physical, mental, or emotional storm that seems that it will overtake us—there is a place of refuge in God.

Few people know that until something hits their life. Some people will never take advantage of the reality of a loving God who longs to embrace their life. I don’t know what their thoughts could be to turn down the promise of Eternal life and the comforter coming to abide within us.

But sadly, the landscape of Florida and other states will be altered in a few short hours. And there will be reports of people who didn’t take this storm seriously and suffered loss, some even their lives.

My viewers are few, but I still feel the need to offer a lifeline that is sure and secure. May God watch over Florida today and protect all that call upon His name.

I bless you

 

 Muddy Faith

This might sound like a strange thing to compare your faith in the Lord with—mud.

But that’s where mine was attached to when I went through my health issue over two years ago. I wish that I could say that I had the “Just speak the Word,” kind of faith but I’m not there.

But thank God that even if we can’t have faith so strong to just believe the Word of healing over our lives, we still can be healed. 

That was my path to healing. The Lord spoke to me very clearly that I was to trust Him and that he would overrule all the systems of the world on my behalf. I held to the example of Jesus putting mud on the eyes of the blind man and telling him to go to the pool of Siloam and wash it off. This man had to walk a distance in faith to receive his healing.

I believed that I was healed the minute the Lord spoke to me the night my issue started. But I had to walk to my pool of healing. I believe that it was due to the Lord knowing my level of faith.

I want to encourage anyone reading here, that God knows where you are in your faith. He also knows if you haven’t yet accepted the Gift of salvation through believing in the Blood of Jesus who died for your sins and have asked Him to come into your life as Lord and Savior.

Of everything I could post here, that’s the greatest thing I can offer you. If you are alive and breathing, it doesn’t take a great deal of common sense on anyone’s part to know that the world is in a mess. I haven’t known a time like this in my seventy-five years that I woke up every day wondering what tragic event had happened overnight. It would be alarming if it wasn’t for my trust in the Lord. Even if it’s a muddy faith.

God loves us so much that He lives within us at the level of faith we have. He spoke something to my spirit the other day while I was praying about the current matters at hand that really made me stop and think about what He said.

I had read a devotional about not giving up on prayer. Even when it doesn’t seem that God is working it doesn’t mean that He isn’t. This scripture came to mind. 2 Timothy 2:13 If we are faithless, He remains faithful (true to His word and His righteous character) for He cannot deny Himself.

God spoke very softly to me, “I have too much invested in you to give up on you; not that that will ever happen anyway.”

Maybe you don’t believe that you can have a real conversation with Almighty God. I know, it’s an amazing thing to even think about. But that’s the mystery and beauty of knowing God as your Savior, Friend, Lord, and Lover of your soul.

I can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t accept this incredible gift of God. But sadly, many won’t.

If you are interested in reading about my Muddy Faith. You can buy a copy here.

I bless you.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C2SCNWCX?ref_=ast_author_ofdp

Ever been in a boat on a lake?

You might answer yes to the title question but if you read further, the question isn’t finished yet.

And the dark clouds have gathered quicker than you expected, and you are in the middle of the lake open to the elements?

I have been in such a situation. We had gone fishing early in the morning. The sky was showing off its beautiful Florida dawn colors. The lake was like glass.  We had hot coffee in each of our cups and headed our small boat out across the lake. It was a picture-perfect day.

Our anticipation of having a good day fishing was the only thing on our minds. We anchored near a clump of low-hanging tree branches and cast in the first of many worms. Within seconds, I had pulled in a beautiful largemouth bass. My excitement was evident. I’d learned how to cast a perfect cast under the branches. The bass were bedding, and they hated to have anything invade their beds.

We trolled casually around the edge of the lake getting further from the boat ramp. Because the situation was so advantageous to fishing we lost sight of the clouds gathering over our heads. I glanced up a time or two but because the fishing had taken my entire attention off those slightly darkening clouds, I missed the still small voice within me cautioning us to begin to slowly make our way back toward where we had parked the truck.

Calamity often strikes us quickly. Sometimes we have warnings but most of the really devastating events in our lives come out of the blue. A very appropriate description of our fishing trip.

One minute the sky was blue and inviting and the next it had quickly darkened, and the wind had begun to whip up around our boat. It became apparent that we might be in trouble.

Our small outboard motor was doing its best to get us back to shore. I knew that we were in trouble. Why hadn’t I kept my eye on the clouds around us? I had seen them getting a bit dark, but my mind was so fixed on fishing that I ignored the clouds changing.

Sure enough, the wind grew stronger pushing against us as we crossed the open lake. Halfway across, those luminous dark clouds unzipped, and a torrent of rain began to sting our faces. Streaks of lightning zig-zagged a few hundred feet from the lake.

I prayed. I really prayed. Not one of my daily, “thank you for all your blessings” type of prayers. I pulled out the deep prayers I’d prayed over my lifetime when I not only was in the midst of darkness, but I had seen it coming kind of prayers.

There’s a difference between “saying we know God” and KNOWING God. And because there is such a lifestyle, you can readily see it in others.

There’s something about seeing that glint in someone’s eye and hearing the strength of conviction in their voice when they AMEN to what you have just said. It’s encouraging, unlike Elijah who thought he was the only one when you see others share your faith.

I pray that you are one of those people who don’t just give lip service to knowing about God. I pray that you truly know Him by having a rich trusting relationship with the King of Kings. That you hear His voice and obey His instructions. So that when He says, “ head to the shore,” you will listen.

I bless you.