Lost and Found
Lost and Found The Lord knows where everything is. The first story I remember hearing about how God knows where everything is, and cares, was a story my grandmother told about her wedding ring. She was washing the dishes when it slipped off of her finger and went down the drain. My grandmother was alarmed,…
Conversion
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2:14 Conversion June-July 1976 My brother’s wedding invitation came to Petersburg Alaska sometime in the spring of 1976. My…
The Heart of Stone
Heart of Stone “I will take the heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26 “I have stopped praying for him.” My friend, Trina said. She was not the first one who had told me this. Since I had been divorced for about six months several people had told…
Guns and Gold, Or God
I am re-posting this blog because recently I have had people tell me that they would shoot someone who came into their house or threatened their children. Thank God nobody killed the Apostle Paul before he was converted. What would the New Testament have looked like if someone had killed him when he broke into…
Out of the Mouth of Babes
When my granddaughters, Hannah and Audrey, were 5 and 3 years old, Hannah did something unkind to her sister. My daughter reprimanded Hannah. Afterward, Audrey asked her mother “Mom, did you ever do anything mean to Heather?” “Oh, yes,” Jasona, answered, “sometimes I was mean to my sister, too.” “What did you do?” Jasona…
Revival in California and Five Generations of Tongue Talkers
Last week Tim and I were in California to take part in the Living Proof Crusade with Mario Murillo. Read about Mario’s visions, words, and descriptions of what happened there on his blog: https://mariomurilloministries.wordpress.com/2019/03/15/breaking-news-3/ In one of Mario’s messages he said that in the early days of Christianity, signs and wonders always accompanied the preaching…
Created or Evolved?
Early in my walk with the Lord I realized that we, and everything else, was created by God. The question of the old earth/new earth puzzled me, though. I knew that God created us fully made, all at once, but what about all this “evidence” of the universe being billions of years old. I…
Dogs, DNA and Sex
My daughter, Jasona, lives in Colorado with her husband, three children and two dogs. A few days ago, their Australian Shepherd, Maggie, unexpectedly, died. She was ten years old but had been in good health. Jasona came home in the afternoon and found her in distress. As her breathing grew labored, Jasona laid her…
Everything’s A Test
Everything’s a Test My mother used to say that when you squeeze a toothpaste tube, toothpaste comes out. What she meant was, what is in your heart will come out when pressure is applied. It’s a simple concept, but how often do you really understand it. Are we surprised when a burst of anger, hurtful…
“Who Was Praying for You?”
My sister, Janie, died in 1986 at the age of 33. She left her husband, two small children, her parents, five siblings and lots of broken hearts behind. We think she died of pneumonia. She had called for an ambulance because she could not breathe. When the ambulance got there she was lying on the…
The Scariest Words from Jesus
Matthew 18:34-35 Matthew 18:34-35 “And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” Matthew 6:14 “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father…
Temple in Ruins
October 25th This morning I read Haggai Chapter 1. I read it in the context of Ezra 5 and 6 The people who returned to Jerusalem from Babylon to rebuild the temple, had stopped doing the work. Haggai rebukes them. Haggai 1:5-10 “Therefore here is what ADONAI-Tzva’ot says: ‘Think about your life! You sow much…
Grocery Store Jesus
Recently I heard another story about people when asked where their groceries come from answered, “From the grocery store”. I have always found it surprising when people say that. They may understand that the food is not produced in the grocery stores, but they give little thought to all the background that is behind that…
Define Love
Love is the sacrificial giving for the betterment of the other. Object Solicited Love vs Subject Generated Love Think about 7th grade grammar. You learned what the subjects and objects of sentences are. Subjects do the action. Objects receive the action. i.e.: Jack (subject) hit the ball (object). There is no such thing as “Object…
Re-thinking the Parable of the Wineskins
Matthew 9:14-17 ESV Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,…
Evolution vs The Fourth Commandment
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant,…
Roundabouts
“What goes around, comes around” That is an axiom that most of us have heard all of our lives. But what is the spiritual lesson in this circular pattern? Recently in our Torah study lessons we have been learning about the pre-existence of the soul. For most of my life I have rejected that notion,…