Missionaries to the United States

Who is the Holy Spirit? This question has been asked for hundreds of years and it is an important topic for our discussion here.

The Bible tells us in the first chapter of Genesis that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the earth and put into motion that which God spoke. Really!?! What in the world does this mean??

It means that the Holy Spirit is the action part of God. He is the One who brings about the Will of God!

Jesus Himself tells us to ask the Father for the Holy Spirit. Jesus also instructed the Disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit before they went out to perform miracles or to tell others about Jesus and Eternal Life.

Why is this? Jesus knew that the early Disciples needed a power beyond themselves in order to live the way God commanded. The same need is here today. If you are born again but have not asked for the power of the Holy Spirit to fill you, then you are living in your own power. This would explain why are can’t get past certain sins or continue to rebel against God’s Word.

The Holy Spirit is the power of God in us.  God is the only One who can resist evil, who can resist sin, who can live a holy and righteous life.  We can’t live like this without the Holy Spirit.

If you haven’t asked Jesus into your heart and life yet, I encourage you to do so soon!  Time is running out and we are watching Bible prophecy be fulfilled every day.  But don’t stop at asking Jesus to forgive you and fill you.  Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you, to “baptize” you with His fire and power.  Only then can you live with the power of God in your life.

Jesus told us to ask for the Holy Spirit. God hasn’t changed, the human nature hasn’t changed, our need for God hasn’t changed.

So, if Jesus said we need Him (Jesus) and we need the Holy Spirit, then ask for both!  Why limit God!

Many years ago after I received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, God showed me two pictures in my mind; sort of like a before and after set of pictures.  The “before” picture was of a round and solid globe.  He showed me that that was how I saw my spiritual life. Solid and complete.  The “after” picture was of that same globe cut in half to reveal the inside.  The core of that sphere was missing!! God showed me that the Holy Spirit was the core and that I had been missing the core and the power of God but didn’t know it.

Like the core of the earth generates the power and holds the earth together, so the Holy Spirit at the center of a Believer provides us the power to live like we should and the Holy Spirit holds us together spiritually.

Remember, we are still human and we are still prone to sin and prone to rebellion.  But, the Holy Spirit gives us a new power to resist sin and to live in humility.  He reminds us to ask God for help; He reminds us of all Jesus did for us on the Cross; He gives us the supernatural strength to be a powerful Believer and to be the kind of person God wants us to be.

The Holy Spirit puts God’s plan to action in our life.  Ask to be Baptized with the Holy Spirit right now and trust God to do incredible things in your life!

I hope you’ll pray this prayer and then write and tell me about it!

Time flies by, doesn’t it? I can’t believe so much time has passed since my last post…..  I pray you are well and that you are growing closer to God each day and maturing in your faith.

The beginning of this series began exploring whether or not you have a personal relationship with Jesus and why it is important to have one. The second installment dealt with prayer; the third installment was about the Bible. This part is about fellowship with other Believers.

Fellowship with others who are also Believers in Jesus Christ is an important part of our lives. Why is that? Jesus Himself had a group of men and women with whom He spent a great deal of time. They were discipled by Jesus Himself; they learned from one another; they supported each other; they challenged each other; they were accountable to each other.

These are all important reasons for us to connect with a group of fellow Believers.  We need to learn from others and let others learn from us. We need support like we need to give back and support others. We grow and mature in our faith when we allow others to challenge us, especially when we are off base or heading in the wrong direction.  Most importantly, we need to be held accountable for our actions and our lifestyle and we need to do the same for our friends.

A fellowship group can be a home fellowship where friends gather to pray, to worship God, and to study the Bible; it can be a home or a church Bible study that has as its focus learning more about God and our faith through learning the Bible.  Fellowship with other Believers can also be through involvement with a local church, especially if it is a small church. Even in a large church, one can develop good friends but it takes more effort.

Because we are in the end times and we are now experiencing the fulfillment of the prophecies about heresy and false prophets and false teachers, the Bible gives us some words of caution.  This is very important!!!

I John 4:1-3: Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

If any group, church, or individual picks and chooses Scriptures to accept or selectively throws out other Scriptures for ANY reason, DO NOT look to them as a person or group or church to teach you.

2 Timothy 3:16-17: All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

“All Scripture” means simply that….. ALL!

Even in the days of the early Church, there were teachers of false doctrine, heretics, and false leaders.  The Apostle Paul warned those he knew to run from them.  Can we do any less?

2 Tim. 3:1-5: But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. 

My husband and I have had to make difficult decisions in this regard so we understand the emotional turmoil you might be in. We’ve even walked out of church (when visiting) because the pastor was preaching something completely unscriptural. We’ve had to challenge friends who we saw heading into a “movement” that wasn’t based on ALL the Bible. And sometimes those people chose to ignore us and break our friendship. It broke our hearts and our fellowship with them. We continue to pray for them but they are answerable to God in the end. Sometimes those friends listened and left the “movement” they were in.

Any time a group, person or religious organization takes a scripture passage out of context and builds a movement on it, you can write it down that a cult is being born.  We’ve seen this repeatedly over the years. Check it out for yourself. The history of the church is rife with breaks and new “denominations” or new “movements” being born either by adding to the Scriptures or by deleting certain Scriptures (or saying they no longer apply to us).

Revelation 1:3: Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.

What this means is that you need to know the Scriptures for yourself. Read and study the Bible, not once, not twice, but multiple times. Get the Word of God deep in your spirit. Know what the Bible says and live by it.  Only by doing this can you protect yourself from false doctrine and heresy.

Even Jesus was tempted by Satan to skew the Scriptures and bow down to him (Satan). Jesus’ answer was to quote the Scriptures back to Satan and rebuke him. This tactic goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden when Satan appeared to Eve at the Tree of Life and tempted her to sin. Satan’s question then is the same question he asks today:  “Did God say…..?”  Nothing has changed and Satan has no new tactics. His purpose is to make you doubt the Word of God, to doubt God Himself, and thereby make you sin.

Revelation 22:18-19: I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.

What if the church you now attend doesn’t believe in the whole Bible? What if you don’t?  Do you discount certain passages because you’ve been taught that they don’t apply to Believers today? Do you ignore other passages because it is inconvenient or too convicting? Are you a liberated woman who thinks the passages about obedience to your husband are out-dated? Are you a man who thinks it’s OK to sit under the preaching (authority) of a woman? Are you a practicing homosexual who thinks your lifestyle doesn’t offend God?

I’m pretty sure I’ve stepped on everyone’s toes by now……  Being offended by the Word of God is not unusual. Our challenge is to align our beliefs and our lives with the Word of God—-not the other way around. The solution to OUR sin is NOT to change what the Bible says. The solution is to change who we are and how we live. God doesn’t change and His Word doesn’t change. He loves us and He gave us the Bible to teach us the best way to live, to teach us how to find Him and how to know Him.  We are the problem!

Remember, God has a high standard–perfection! If you want an eternal relationship with Him, you’ll have to make the changes He requires. Every Believer has the same struggles and that is why fellowship with other Believers is so important. We need encouragement and correction when we sin; we need to be challenged to live up to God’s standard; we need to be reminded that God loves us even when we do slip and fall and that we should be quick to repent.

In a fellowship with other Believers, we can have the difficult conversations to help us grow and mature in our faith. We must be held accountable to God’s standard and not the standard set by society and we must make ourselves vulnerable with other trustworthy Believers who are probably going through the same things. A real fellowship is a place of worship, joy, praise, teaching and learning. It is a place where we can invest our time to find God, get to know Him better, and grow closer to Him and become more like Him.

It takes work to find a church or fellowship that believes in the whole Bible and teaches it in its entirety. Most large denominations (Protestant or Catholic) today really think the Bible is a fairy tale or a collection of ancient stories. The Apostle Paul’s teachings are discarded, the Book of Revelation is shunned, the Scriptures are considered allegory, the Old Testament is unknown.  As a result, church is no more than a social gathering where friends catch up on the latest gossip. God doesn’t show up, He isn’t worshiped, and the Holy Spirit is no where to be found.

If this describes your current church, then change might be in order. In short, it’s time to run! Sometimes it isn’t possible to find a church home that is in proper order. We live in San Francisco and still can’t find one even after 4 years. So, we use the internet to find churches and teachers who have sound teaching. We read and study on our own and challenge each other. Yes, we do long for fellowship with other believers but we cherish our time with God and look forward to His fellowship.

If you don’t want to leave your church, and if your church isn’t teaching the whole Bible, you’ll have some challenges. Make it a point of growth to reach out to your friends and challenge their beliefs. Start a Bible study at your own home and be an agent of the Holy Spirit to bring about change and revival. It only takes one person, inspired by God and led by the Holy Spirit, to reach out and start teaching others what the Word of God actually says.

It’s a joyous thing to watch someone’s understanding open and their lives change simply because they are challenged to believe that the whole Bible is for them, personally.

May God bless you abundantly as you serve Him and may your relationship with Jesus grow deeper every day!

In Christ’s Service,

Dottie

We’ve been learning about God and have discovered that He really does care about you and me. We’ve also learned that He enjoys communicating with us and hearing from us (prayer). This post is about the instruction manual for life that He gave us long ago and how we can learn more about Him, learn about promises He’s made to us, learn about why He created us, and discover the meaning for our lives, and much, much more!

If you’ve just dropped in and landed here, I encourage you to go to the first post, Does God Really Care About Me?, and read it along with Part 2 of the same title.  These posts build upon each other and this one does as well. You’ll understand this post much better if you’ve read the other two.

This instruction manual that God wrote for us is called the Bible. If you’re skeptical about the Bible or don’t know much about it, that’s Okay. If you’ve tried to read it in the past and just got confused, hopefully, this will help you, too.

First, a bit of history so you can gain a level of trust in this fascinating book called the Bible. Even though the Bible is referred to as a “book,” it is actually a collection of 66 separate and distinct writings (books) written by over 40 authors. Those 66 books were written over a span of more than 2,000 YEARS!! Wow, that is a very long time!  Even more, and the most important fact, there is only ONE message throughout.

Another important fact that proves that the Bible is truly written by God through men is that the prophecies in the Bible have an accuracy rating of 100%!  No other prophetic book can come even close. This gives us an immense picture into the nature of God–if He says it will happen, you can count on it.  Over 300 of the Bible’s prophecies have already come to pass. There are many more that pertain to the future that are yet to be fulfilled.

This is definitely one good reason to read it carefully.  If you want to know what will happen in the future, just read the Bible!

The Bible, also called the Holy Scriptures, or just Scriptures, written by more than 40 different men, over more than 2,000 years, has only one message that is consistent throughout. That’s why the Bible is considered to be God-inspired.  No other book “collection” has that kind of cohesiveness.

The main message of the Bible is this:  God loves you and He wants to have a relationship with you.

Think about that for a minute. The God who created the Universe (a simple term we use to mean EVERYTHING) wants to tell you, personally, that He loves you, personally, and He wants to have a relationship with you. That’s mind-boggling if you take the time to really think about it!

One internet site I’ve come to love is www.BlueLetterBible.org. I hope you’ll bookmark it so you can visit it often to help you in your study of the Bible. The link to Study Tools is the place to find some really great help. And, if you don’t have a copy of the Bible, you can also read online from this site.

Many people try to start reading the Bible like they would a novel, at Page 1, and they quickly get discouraged and conclude that they simply don’t understand it. For a new Believer, or for someone still searching to find out who God is, I would recommend beginning reading in the New Testament.  The Book of John is the fourth Book of the New Testament and it will introduce you to God, to Jesus Christ, and to the men who were the first followers of Jesus Christ.

BlueLetterBible.org allows you to select different versions of the Bible. The default is KJB which means King James Version. This can be a bit awkward to read so I suggest you select NASB (New American Standard Bible). The NASB is very accurate and is very easy to understand.

Basically the Bible is broken down into two “Testaments”; the Old Testament and the New Testament.  The Old Testament is simply those Books written prior to the birth of Jesus Christ.  These were the only Scriptures the early followers of Jesus had and these were the Scriptures that Jesus Himself referred to when He spoke about the “Scriptures.”  So, when you read something said by Jesus or the early Believers and they refer to the “Scriptures,” they are talking about the Old Testament.

The books we now refer to as the New Testament are writings by some of the early Believers; these were all written after the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

My recommendation is to first read through the New Testament as a whole. Pray before you read and ask God to open your heart and mind to what He has to say–after all, He wrote the Book!!  Just read a chapter or two each day and it won’t take long to finish. Don’t worry right now about what you don’t understand. If you think of it as a true and historical love story, it will read easier.

There are some terms that people use interchangeably that might be a little confusing. Hopefully, this will clear up any confusion.

Disciple:  Someone who believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, has been born again, and follows His teachings. A Disciple is also called a Follower or a Believer.

Apostle:  12 men who Jesus selected to be His special students. He had a close relationship with them and frequently spent time just with them teaching them in detail about the topics He was teaching larger crowds. These men were being groomed by Jesus to carry on His work after His death.

Scriptures:  In today’s conversation, it usually means the whole Bible.  If seen in the New Testament, it refers to the Old Testament.

The most important concept to keep in your mind is that God wants you to understand what He’s saying. If you don’t understand something, just ASK Him!! He’s delighted that you want to know Him better and He’s there to explain anything that is confusing. I’ve put this to the test many times over the years. He’s always given me understanding about a passage that was unclear. Sometimes I understood shortly after asking, sometimes I had to wait a bit.

Don’t give up on reading and searching; discovery is half the fun!

Many years ago, I heard somewhere the phrase “A Proverb a Day Keeps the Devil Away.” There are 31 Proverbs. Since many months have 31 days, it is quite easy to read a Proverb each day and then just read two on the last day of the month.  When I began reading a Proverb a day, it astonished me how appropriate it was for that specific day! Month in and month out, there was always something very particular in that Proverb that helped me during the day.  Give it a try and see what happens.

Many people have said that the Bible isn’t to be taken literally and that it is full of symbolism that simply can’t be understood. The longer I’m a Believer, the longer I read and study the Scriptures, the more literally I take the Bible, and the easier it is to understand. Think about it. If God really wants us to know Him, why would He talk in riddles? If you are trying to communicate something to your friend, do you talk in symbolism or do you say what you mean?

If God says something in the Bible that we don’t understand (or that the scholars don’t understand), it doesn’t mean it’s symbolism. It simply means we don’t understand it—-yet. Also, many prophecies in the Bible involve a man describing an event or an object from the future that he is seeing in a vision. His only frame of reference would be those things in his own time frame that he understands.

For example, John in the Book of Revelation describes many different “flying creatures”. They sound like strange sci-fi insects that have been exposed to radiation! However, if you lived in an age when people walked or rode mules and horses and the fastest thing on earth was a chariot, how would you describe a car or a helicopter? Would you describe a helicopter like a type of locust with many eyes?

The point is, when you come to a description of something truly strange, read it and try to form a picture in your mind from the writer’s perspective.

If you enjoy listening to teachers, we found one Bible teacher that is very knowledgeable, very down-to-earth, extremely accurate, and on YouTube. His name is Chuck Missler. The channel that seems to have most of his teachings in a complete presentation is 777brokenchains.

The MOST important point about Bible study is this: if a church, a preacher, priest, or pastor, contradicts the Bible, you’ll be safest siding with what the Bible says. This was a decision I had to make many years ago. Hmmmm, the church says such-and-such and the Bible says the opposite.  Who should I believe?  No brainer!! I go with God any day!

I pray this post has been helpful to you. When you became a follower of Jesus Christ, that was only the beginning of a journey. The journey is a lifetime of discovery of who God is, who we are in relation to Him, how we should live in this world, and where we go after death.

Be encouraged! Every person who follows Christ is on this same journey. We all have the same questions, problems, slips and falls. The important thing is that you continue the journey. When you fall and sin, don’t stay there! Repent and confess your sin to Christ, ask Him for help not to sin again, and continue the journey.

The first post in this series was about giving your life to Jesus Christ and becoming a Believer/Follower of Him.  The second post was about prayer; communicating with Jesus and with God.  This post is about The Bible and how important it is to read and study what God has to say to us. It is a Book of encouragement, love, discipline, and instruction.

May God bless you as you seek to know Him better and grow in wisdom and understanding.

Dottie

In my last post entitled, “Does God Really Care About Me?”, I addressed this often-asked question. The answer is a resounding “YES!!!”  God truly and deeply cares about each of us as individuals. Our backgrounds, preconceived notions, attitudes, and past behavior don’t change the fact that God loves you and He loves me. We are His children, His creation and He loves us like a parent loves their child.

If you haven’t read the previous post, I hope you’ll take the time to go read it and then come back to this post.  The reason is that this post builds upon the very important information presented in the other one.

So, let me assume that you prayed the prayer at the end of the previous post and you now have a personal relationship with God and with Jesus Christ.  What now?

You may or may not have felt anything when you prayed and asked Jesus to forgive you and be your Lord. Many people feel a deep and inexplicable sense of peace. Many feel joy or excitement; many feel nothing at all.  Don’t worry about whether or not you felt anything. If you were sincere, the change in your spirit and soul happened. Trusting that something DID happen is called faith.

What you just experienced is what Jesus referred to as being “born again.”  Check out this passage in the Bible at John 3:1-18:

1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews;2 this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” 5 Jesus answered,”Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

9 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. 12 If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. 14 As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 15 so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.

16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18 He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Prayer:

Does God really care about me?  Does He care about me; does He care what is going on in my life, in my world?  If these are questions you ask yourself, there is good news!

Yes, God does care about you! And He cares about you, specifically. He’s known you for a very long time even if you don’t know Him.

Psalm 139:13 says, “For You [God] formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.”

What does this mean? This Psalm tell us that God Himself created us and formed us even before we were born.  God is the One who put you together.  God the Creator knew you before your mother knew you! He designed you specifically for a purpose and there is only one of you. God, Himself, wanted you here on this earth at this time in history.

At the beginning of this same Psalm, verses 1-4 we find:

“O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thoughts from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it all.”

This is amazing! The God of the universe, the God who created all things knows even what you’re about to say! He knows where you are and what you’re doing.

Okay. So, what ARE you doing? Would you be proud of your behavior if God suddenly appeared in the flesh at a moment in time when you least expect it?  Are you embarrassed to realize that God does know everything you’re doing, at all times?  Does that make you angry? Afraid? Are you feeling shame?

The mere fact that you feel something when you think about this means that the Holy Spirit of God is at work in your life.  God wants the best for each of us, however, He is more interested in our spiritual life than our physical comfort.  So if you’re accustomed to praying for lots of blessings, plenty of money, popularity, or a big house, perhaps that’s why you feel your prayers aren’t answered.

The prayers God truly wants to answer in the affirmative are those prayers that affect our spirit.  Are you full of fear? Ask God to remove that fear and replace it with His peace. Are you full of anger? Ask God to show you why you’re angry and ask His help to remove the cause.  Are you full of self-doubt? Ask God to fill you with His presence and to give you confidence in His purpose for creating you.

Does God really care about me?  Yes, He does!! He wants to transform you from a fearful, angry, insecure, rebellious, and selfish person into a person who is full of trust in Him, a person full of His peace, a person who is confident, a humble and sincere person, a person who freely and joyfully gives to others.

We are spiritual beings and it is our spiritual life that means the most to God. When we die, our body stays here but our spirit goes somewhere. The Bible tells us there are only two options as to where our spirit goes.  Option number one is Heaven; option number two is Hell.  This isn’t a popular message these days, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is true. If we have a personal relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ, we’ll spend eternity with Them in Heaven.  Without that personal relationship, our eternal destination is Hell.

God longs to have a genuine relationship with every single one of us.  He already knows you and He wants you to know Him!  He wants to bless you and fill you with peace!  God Himself longs to have a personal relationship with you.  Think about this a minute….  The God who created the universe, who designed it and spoke it into existence, the God who has existed forever in the past and will be forever in the future.  This God wants to be your best friend and be your source of strength.

There is only one way to have this kind of personal relationship with God and it was He who set up the way.  God Himself sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to live among us, to teach us how to live a pure life, to show us how to build this friendship with God.  Jesus also did something else that is very important.  Jesus built a bridge from us to God but we have to cross that bridge in order to have this relationship with God.  That bridge is called the Cross.

You see, the reason we have to go through Jesus to have a relationship with God is because God’s standard is perfection.  Nothing gets into Heaven unless it meets that standard.  I don’t know about you, but I fall terribly short of that standard.  My sinful nature rears its ugly head and I feel envious at times, I lie sometimes (little white lies are still lies), and you don’t really need to know the rest.  Make your own list.  Do you think you can honestly say you are perfect?  Nope, didn’t think so!

None of us are perfect and God knew this when He created us.  And He still wants a relationship with us, forever.  Hard to understand, isn’t it? This is why Jesus is so important. Jesus, being the Son of God, was the only person to ever live who met this standard of perfection.  More than this, He died in our place on the cross. Jesus, when He was crucified on the Cross, took upon Himself all the sins that were committed in the past as well as those that would be committed in the future.  And He took the punishment from God for those sins–and Jesus did this on our behalf. Jesus deserved none of the punishment because He was perfect.  We’re the ones who deserve the punishment for our sins.

Since those sins have been paid for by Jesus, we have an opportunity to enter Heaven if we accept what Jesus did on the Cross and make it personal.  What I mean is, we must transfer our trust from ourselves to what Jesus did.  If we trust in our own good works to get us into Heaven, we’ll not get there because we sin.  If we trust in Jesus Christ, believe in Him as the Son of God, believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, then we will enter Heaven when we die.

Romans 10:8-11 says it better than I can:

“But what does it say? ‘The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’–that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

Yes, God does care about you and He cares very much where you spend eternity. He prefers that you spend it with Him in Heaven.  But, God leaves that choice to us.  It’s our choice.  We can choose eternal life in Heaven or we can choose eternal life in Hell.

If you want to spend eternity in Heaven, it is very simple.  Do what Romans 10:8-11 said to do (written above).  Believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord, believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, and confess both of these things with your mouth.  Tell someone else.

If you want some help with this, here’s a short prayer to pray.  If you want to tell me that you prayed it, please head for the contact us page.  But tell someone special and share this page with them, too.

Here’s the prayer:  “Father God, I come to You in Jesus’ Name.  I’m a sinner and I’m sorry for my sins and I turn away from them. I believe that Your Son, Jesus Christ, died on the cross to pay for my sins. I believe in Jesus, that He is your Son and that You raised Him from the dead.  Jesus, please be my Lord and Savior. Forgive me for all my sins, past, present, and future.  God, thank you for hearing my prayer and for answering it. I want to have a relationship with You and to spend eternity in Heaven.”

If you prayed that sincerely, then God has forgiven you and Jesus Christ is now your Lord. Yes, God does care about you!

If you have a Bible, I encourage you to read the Book of John in the New Testament.  It will introduce you to God and to Jesus so you can get to know them better.  This is a good starting point.  Talk to God and Jesus every day and listen to them.  Yes, they will talk to you but you’ll need to learn to listen.  This is called prayer.  God cares about even the little things in our lives, so feel free to discuss any “petty” problems with Him.  He’ll be delighted!  And you’ll be changed little by little into the kind of person you really want to be, deep down.

God bless you and I hope to hear from you!

Dottie

Here’s a very touching and inspiring video.

Please take a couple minutes to recharge your batteries.

Merry Christmas!

Dottie

This year has been one of drastic change for many of us and I want to encourage you to keep your eyes focused squarely on Jesus Christ. Jesus told us that troubled times would come and He also promised that He would go through them with us. He also promised that He would give us the necessary strength to walk through those difficulties.

Jesus can always be trusted. God our Father can always be depended upon. The Holy Spirit can always be called upon for help and guidance.

So, no matter what horrible events happen in our country, no matter what terrifying news we receive, we can turn to God; in fact, we should turn to Him. He is our loving Father, our caring Creator who wants to have a close and personal relationship with us.

None of us can understand why men randomly fire upon innocent men, women, and children and then kill themselves. What we can and should understand is that we live in a fallen world, a world that has been corrupted by sin. Don has written an excellent message that explains how horrific events like the recent shootings can be instigated by demons. I encourage you to watch it and learn about this unseen world that influences our lives.

Our physical world is only half of the real world around us, the other half is the spiritual world–both good spiritual and evil spiritual. Once we understand that, we can learn to see what motivates evil in our world and why.

The Bible tells us that Satan was cast out of Heaven by God and that he was cast down to the earth. Just because we don’t see a physical body doesn’t mean he isn’t here. He rules this world from a spiritual dimension that we cannot see.

Have you ever walked by a dark alley entrance at dusk or at night and felt chills down your spine or hackles rise up on your neck. These are your “instincts” warning you of danger. That is your spiritual self sensing the evil demons lurking about. Your instinct tells you to walk fast and get to the light. That is your spirit man urging you to get away from the evil demons.

God gave us these instincts for our protection. In the same way that we sense the evil around us, we can also sense the good. Remember how you got “goose bumps” when someone shared how they miraculously survived a car wreck or when you hear beautiful Christian music? Same thing. Your spirit-man is responding to the Holy Spirit and to the presence of God’s Angels.

This sensitivity to the Spiritual World that God created is a good thing and we sometimes have to learn to listen. Be careful to listen to God and what He says about the spiritual world. There are many deceptive demons who have disguised themselves as the New Age movement, nature worship, angel worship etc.  God is a jealous God and His First Commandment is that we have no other gods before Him.

Anything that urges you to think of yourself as a god and all-knowing is a lie.  Anything that says you are self-sufficient and don’t need God is a lie. Anything that says God needs help is a lie.

I could go on and on and on about the many lies that have been propagated over the years and still not cover them all because new ones continually crop up.  The best way to recognize a lie is to be so familiar with and knowledgeable about the truth that you will instantly see a lie for what it is.

Please take some time to read the first four Books of the New Testament in the Bible. These are commonly known as the Gospels and they tell us about the life of Jesus, about God’s plan for us, and about how much He wants a relationship with each one of us. These books are names Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. You’ll find the story of Jesus’ birth recorded there as well so this makes for good reading during this season.

God knows what is going on in our world and He grieves with us. He weeps when we weep, He hurts when we hurt. He doesn’t want the evil here any more than we do. It was man who first sinned and broke our relationship with God. It is only through repentance and seeking Jesus Christ that our relationship with God can be restored.  This is the only way we can find peace in this life.

This is not a theory or something I’ve read about or heard about. This peace is real and I found it myself when I repented of my sin and asked Jesus to come into my heart and into my life. You can have peace and security too even in the middle of  the turmoil of this world. I hope you will read the Gospels for yourself and act upon what you read. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes as you read; ask Jesus to make Himself real to you.  He will!

God bless you always,

Dottie

You’ll note from my earlier post that I have been struggling with Lyme Disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, a co-infection that also comes from an insect bite. The last year and a half have been a real challenge physically and a time of drawing closer to God that only severe suffering can produce.

I’m on the mend, praise God, and give Him all the glory for it. When one suffers from a debilitating illness, one gets a new perspective on everyday tasks that used to be taken for granted. Like washing dishes or just walking. In the depths of my illness, even these seemingly simple tasks were too monumental to accomplish.

Through it  all, God gave me a profound peace deep in my heart that He had healed me.  He also let me know that I had to walk through the healing process–no short cut.  Drats! I desperately wanted God to reach down and touch my pain ridden body and heal it.  He chose to let me walk through that pain.  I desperately wanted him to immediately restore my strength and endurance.  He chose to let me recover slowly.

Why did He not heal me immediately?  I simply don’t know. Two things I do know.  He was certainly capable of healing me instantly and He had a purpose for the way He healed me.  God doesn’t have to explain to us why He does or doesn’t do something.  This was one of those times where I had to TRUST Him and what He was doing in my life and that of my husband.

Yes, I wasn’t the only one walking through this process. My beloved husband was also in this.  When I hurt, he hurt more because he couldn’t fix it. He could only watch. When I was unable to prepare a meal, he had to prepare it.  When I started feeling better, he rejoiced with me.  When God taught me about His unfathomable love, God also was teaching my husband about unconditional love.

God never promised us that we would be free from suffering or persecution.  He did promise us that He would be with us through it. That He would carry us when we didn’t have the strength to carry the burden.  He also promised us that He would give us strength for each trial.

If you are suffering from an illness and it appears that God isn’t hearing your prayers, may I encourage you that God hears and answers all prayers. Sometimes His answer is YES, sometimes His answer is NO, and sometimes His answer is NOT NOW.

Instead of asking God why He doesn’t heal you the way you want, perhaps the question should be “What do You want me to learn from this?”

God’s grace is sufficient for ALL situations. The problem is never Him, the problem is usually us.  Ouch!!

Peace be with you and may God answer your prayers in the best way,

Dottie

Dear Friends,

I can’t believe so much time has passed since posting here; time does fly!!  The past 9 months have been a real challenge for me personally because I’ve been dealing with Lyme disease again.  The more I research it, the more I hate the bug.  It seems like somewhere in the fuzzy past, I did have a tick bite although I never got the bulls-eye rash that everyone hears about.

I’ve since learned that a large percentage of people who have been bitten by ticks never do develop the rash!  Also, I seem to be one of those people whose body doesn’t produce the antibodies that the blood work looks for so my blood works keeps coming back “no Borrellia.”  Fortunately, God led me to a homeopathic doctor who is also a Lyme specialist although at the time I went to him, I didn’t know that.  In 2007, I also didn’t know I had Lyme!  He does muscle testing instead of relying solely on blood work.  Another blessing!

In any event, by the first of July, 2011, I was so weak I could barely move and was in a downward spiral.  In short, I was dying.  My husband and I looked at each other and prepared ourselves that my time here was short; maybe 1 year or 2 left, but within months, it looked like I would be bed ridden.  I’ve lost 30 pounds of MUSCLE which is slowly coming back as I exercise.  The Lyme set off an auto immune disorder in which my immune system attacked the muscles (Lyme was in my muscular system).

During this time of illness, I continued to research alternative treatments since I’m very sensitive to chemicals and that includes traditional pharmaceuticals.  I’ve learned many things including that homeopathic antibiotics are more effective against Lyme and co-infections than traditional antibiotics.  That hyperbaric oxygen (HBOT for short) kills the Lyme bacteria if the proper pressure is used (2.4 atmospheres) along with 100 percent oxygen.  That God is in control even when our bodies have gone out of control.  That God comforts and uplifts even when one is crying in pain and questioning whether or not the next day full of pain can be endured.

It has been a very trying time as well for my dear husband, Don, who has had to do all the cooking, cleaning, and shopping because I didn’t have the strength to walk far much less stand and cook.  Don went through his own valley of fear at the thought of losing me, his wife of 26 years.  Tomorrow we celebrate our 26th wedding anniversary; it holds special significance since God has restored my health and I can walk again, cook again, and am getting my muscles back.

There are still challenges ahead because the Lyme bacteria, and other co-infections, remain a heavy load in my body.  I just thank God for his faithfulness and for leading me to doctors and treatments to heal.  I thank all our friends and family for their prayers and financial help.

Yes, God is still in the miracle business!  Sometimes He heals instantly, sometimes He heals slowly, sometimes He leads us to earthly doctors.  Do I understand why?  NO!!  It doesn’t matter, though, whether or not we understand why God does something. Our job is to trust Him.  Sometimes building trust means doing things a little differently.  At the end of the day, I can say with Job, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust Him.” (Job 13:15)

If you are suffering from illness of any kind, may I offer you encouragement?  Take control of your health and research, research, research.  Doctors are human and don’t know everything.  Learn as much as you can and learn alternative treatments, nutritional treatments, homeopathic treatments.  The internet has some great information and resources, but as always with the internet, use common sense and double check what you find.  And lastly, but most importantly, get a prayer network going to bang on the doors of Heaven!

Blessings to you and our prayers for your good health!

Dottie

Coming this Friday, July 23rd through Sunday, July 25th, 2010!!! Nick Kinn will be here in San Francisco for our Effective Evangelism Everywhere conference.

This is a teaching and training conference with hands-on experience in a team setting to teach people how to effectively share their faith and lead someone to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  We are so excited about the team Nick is bringing from Minneapolis.  Nick will teach in the short training sessions and then we’ll hit the streets of San Francisco to share Jesus.  Each person from Nick’s church will lead a team in a show-and-teach type setting on the streets.

You’ll be able to see first-hand how to approach people, how to ask probing questions to determine their spiritual condition, and how to minister to them in an effective manner. Then you’ll have a chance to practice yourself with the team leader there as coach.

Here’s the schedule.  We’d love to have you!

Blessings!

Dottie