“Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.” Proverbs 4:25-27 One morning a friend invited me to join her in helping someone in need. She knows my heart for the Lord, and my heart for people in need. She wanted to know if I had time that day to come alongside her. A wonderful opportunity to spend time with a friend in the capacity of helping someone. The answer was obvious, in my estimate anyway. My daily schedule is usually as open as possible so I can be available to the maximum to seek, hear from,…
“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.” James 1:5-6 “Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.” Proverbs 4:5 Lots of us pray to God for wisdom, don’t we? We even pray a fancy prayer sometimes like, “Please God give me wisdom and discernment.” After all, we know we need to know God’s will to do God’s will. We need wisdom in order to obey. And, per the Bible, if we really love God, we will obey…
“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” John 13:34 You may think this is about an injured baby deer. It’s not. It’s not about how early one morning I found a baby deer sitting under a beautiful tree like the deer was a dog enjoying the morning quiet. Nor about how I knew something was wrong because deer don’t just sit under trees like dogs sometimes do. Nor about how I realized the deer when it saw me should have gotten up and darted away. Nor about how I cried when the deer finally got up and it became clear it had a leg dangling from its body like the rescue dog I…
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith…” Romans 12:1 “Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.” 1 Thess. 5:11 My Dad used to run races, including marathons. He didn’t race to win. He raced to finish. Despite how athletic he was, and what a great runner he was, he was too busy in his successful medical practice to take the time to train to win the races. Bu he ran them just the same, and what…
“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6 “You don’t have need to see why,” a beloved friend told me one night. “You just have to be faithful.” How true are these words. Some of us tend to toss around the word Lord, don’t we? We call Jesus Lord, but do we think and act as though He truly is? For the umpteenth time, I was deliberating about, and moaning about, and feeling weighed down by, something God had called me to do which I desperately, desperately didn’t want to do. Just when I thought He had finally answered my cries for relief, for change, and for deliverance from…
“But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.” John 4:23 One day I watched a man climb an exceedingly high ladder. I prayed for him briefly. He had a job to do. Painting. He needed to climb high. What a fall he might have taken! But he did not. Yet just hours later, I heard from a man who took an incredible fall down a ladder. You might be shocked to hear this. His fall was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. The American culture, and dream, seem all about climbing corporate ladders, building resumes, winning awards, getting job promotions, rising to the top of companies, climbing…
“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” James 4:10 “I forgive so and so,” I said. “And this person,” I continued. “And I forgive that person. And oh, yeah, I forgive that one also.” I went on – and on. I was sitting with a friend and sister in the Lord years ago saying aloud to the Lord whom I was choosing to forgive in obedience to His command for us to forgive others. My friend, who was essentially mentoring me at the time, was encouraging me to think of everyone I needed to forgive – and to go ahead and do it. But there were two problems, I see in retrospect. First, saying aloud I forgive someone is entirely different than…
“Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Mt. 6:31-33 Sweet little senior dog Glory, brought long ago to a shelter with a litter of dead pups, emaciated, chewed up in lice, open sores, missing hair, with heartworm disease, an infection, 2 cherry eyes, and other eye problems, so sick she could barely walk for weeks, no longer has any eyes. They were removed. She doesn’t walk by sight. She walks by faith. Faith in her…
“In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell…
“My beloved is mine, and I am his…” Son. 2:16 I watched her. Young. Woman. Girl perhaps. In black. Clothes. Black. Hair. Black. In flight. Running. First one way. Then the other. Looking for something. Or someone. I thought I recognized her. But she wasn’t who I thought she was. Someone else. Someone I didn’t know I came to find. Someone on the run. Searching. Looking. Seeking. Unable to find. Whatever it was she was needing. Wanting. Or both. Then we crossed paths. Ever so briefly. She told me what she needed. So simple. Easy. She was defensive though. Like I wouldn’t want to help with what she needed. Like I wouldn’t believe her need. Her motive. As insignificant, trivial, as it was. Our paths crossed so briefly. Off…
“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:…” “Every day you bless me,” I said to the Lord one morning as I knelt on the ground caring for paralyzed dog Mr. Simeon with paralyzed Miss Mercy and dog with no eyes little Glory and 13 year old dancing dog Dancer close by. “And I don’t see all the blessings.” How often it seems I see everything but – and respond poorly. Negatively. Blind to the blessings. The words came to me immediately. Clearly the Holy Spirit. With a message. Sometimes I go around frustrated, yearning, no idea what to write next. Where are the words? The messages? Other times I remember. The Holy Spirit gives them to me. Wait on the Lord. Then they come. In…
“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Matthew 7:13-14 “Help her to walk the narrow path,” I prayed to the Lord. As quickly as I had begun praying for a sister in the Lord, I sensed from the Spirit of God my prayer was done. I had prayed for her already a few times, and again then. That God would help her make a decision, and that He would help her walk the narrow path. I knew virtually nothing about her besides that she could use prayer,…
“And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.” Genesis 15:4-6 “Now Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may…
“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Matthew 16:24-26 “I don’t want to be a failure in front of all those people,” a friend shared intimately with me one day. If we’re truly honest with ourselves, is this not something to which some, if not many, of us can relate? The fear of what others think of us? That we will fail…
“These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.” Proverbs 6:16-19 In this sugar-coated, self-centered-saturated world, even those who profess to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ sometimes get swept away with a watered down version of the Gospel message – or even a totally false version of it. How often I have visited churches or talked to professing believers only to find the resounding message is, “Jesus loves you! Jesus loves you!” And that’s the end of it. Like all we need to do…
“Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” Luke 10:19 Call it funny, cool, popular, meaningless, trivial, insignificant, innocent, or even ignorant, or anything else, but it’s anything but. Try dark, dangerous, ungodly, unholy, evil, and, ultimately, a matter of life, death, and eternal torment in hell and the lake of fire. The message behind it, that is. That’s if you want to know the truth behind one of the latest fads that Satan, the devil, the enemy of all of humanity, is looming, lurking, and slithering stealthily, sickeningly, despicably behind. Oh, how deceitful he is! Oh, how he loves to hide himself with his endless appalling deceit. The first…
“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Phil. 4:13 “I can’t do this anymore!” a friend cried out to me right around the time she burst into tears. She was not one to cry, at least in front of me. I knew how much pain she was in. She was broken. Battered down by someone else’s sin. Within a week or so, another friend cried out to me. “I can’t do this anymore!” She didn’t burst into tears. She burst into anger. She too had been battered down by someone else’s sin. Broken. Both were ready to quit. To give up in their situations. But this isn’t about broken people. Nor about being battered by others’ sin. Nor about giving up. It’s about something with which I’m…
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16 “…Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep…I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” John 10:7-9 When a friend lovingly invited me to bring two of my dogs to his home for a visit with his precious family and the sweet dog he had adopted from me, he wrote me that I didn’t need to bring the dogs straight into the back yard as I had offered so I could bypass the front door and their house. “Come in the…
“And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean. And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.” Mark 1:40-42 One day I visited a prayer meeting and was struck by how a woman believed we should DEMAND God for what we want. She seemed to think this was biblical. Sadly, I could relate. See, I was for years under false teaching. Prosperity, name it-claim it teaching whereby it was all about US and not about GOD. I was basically taught the…
Update & Prayer Request from Lara In a nutshell, the first six weeks of being on the road full-time for the Lord and ministry were AMAZING. All by God’s grace alone! I probably had more opportunities in streets ministry as an evangelist & writer talking to people and distributing the Gospel tracts & devotionals I write than in all the years combined I have been in ministry. Not to mention in the south where my ministry work was usually focused on Americans often wealthy or middle class due to the region in which I lived or on the homeless and those in extreme need in the inner city where I often visited weekly or to prisoners via mail, in Virginia where I am in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area, I…
“Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD. I will surely consume them, saith the LORD: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them. Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD. We looked…
“…Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Mt. 22:39 Call me proud and biased. I am. Call this bragging. I am. My Dad, who tried to retire after decades of being an AMAZING doctor, in my estimate anyway, is still in medicine. Helping patients, and other health-care practitioners. Seems to be in his bones. His blood. His makeup. I can’t possibly forget decades ago growing up in my family witnessing my Dad go to exceeding lengths to help his chronically ill patients. One particular memory from decades ago popped into my mind one day. With it came a wonderful lesson, inspiration, and encouragement for those who follow the Lord Jesus Christ. About “doing rounds.” “Your father is doing rounds,” my beloved Mom would say about my beloved Dad. She would…
“Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.” Luke 6:22-23 I am not sure there is any ministry on the Internet with a Facebook page with fewer “likes” than mine. Nor with fewer fans or followers, or however that works. Nor on my personal page fewer “friends” who actually know me. Praise the Lord! Following Christ is not for those seeking to win a popularity contest. It’s for those who yearn to live with God…
“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14 I’ve been driving for so long I don’t much think about it. I turn the keys in the ignition and off I go. I don’t usually think of all the aspects of it. Like starting the car. Putting my foot on the gas pedal. Backing up. Going forward. Turning. Slowing down. Speeding up. Watching out for other cars. Watching for turns. Signs. Stoplights. Yield signs. Which lane to get into. Or out of. Traffic accidents ahead.…
“Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.” Jer. 17:5-8 bold added “Blessed is the…
“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” Rev. 4:11 “For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;” Colossians 1:9-10 “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:14 How tragic it is how much of…
“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie…
“Serve the LORD with gladness…” Psalm 100:2 I have a beloved sister and friend with a background in emergency room nursing who when she left behind her emergency room job due to a medical diagnosis scrubbed people’s toilets and donated the money to my ministry. She didn’t have an ounce of pride, not an iota of complaining nor resistance, that I heard anyway. She considered it an honor and privilege to scrub toilets for Jesus, as she described it. This friend lives in the area that is my first stop in being full time on the road for the Lord and ministry, and two of her latest ventures as she scoots around on a scooter due to a broken foot are making me homemade granola because she knows I love…
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thess. 4:16-17 Once upon a time there was a little girl whose eyes were glued to the sky. Didn’t think eyes can be glued to the sky, fastened so tight they can’t look away, so stuck on the sky nothing can unglue them? This girl’s eyes were so glued to the sky decades later they were just as un-stuckable – as though that were a…
“For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Mt. 6:14-15 A beloved friend and I stood in her kitchen. Actually, I stood. She stood on one foot. The other rested on a scooter because she had broken it. But this didn’t stop her from “standing” with a friend and sister in Christ, so to speak. She had called another beloved sister to stand in faith and love with us and placed that one on speaker phone so we could pray together. My heart was crushed. I had been betrayed by a group of people some of whom I had known for years. Lied to. Deceived. Nobody had initiated a…