Do You Know How God Loves You?

Im Choking . . . But Life Moves on Along the Path of Grief

2011-12-15T21:12:00.002-06:00

I wrote a little Kindle book about grief. I hope it can bring comfort to those who read it. Here are some words from the product description:

No matter how much you may want to turn back time -- or perhaps you just want all the sadness to go away long enough for you to recover a few minutes or for a night of dream-free sleep -- life moves on. Time rushes on. Life moves on along relentlessly along the path of grief.

The process of grieving is like walking through a murky swamp. In this e-book I want to talk with you about the way it feels. There's no way I can know exactly what you are going through, not even if we could sit and talk and you could tell me. I will tell you though that I have experienced grief and known many other dear ones who have.

Certain aspects of grieving are the same for almost everybody. Even though each grief journey is unique, every person grieving shares some of the same feelings. Please understand that you are not alone. It's okay to cry.

Thanksgiving and Praise

2011-11-24T09:11:00.001-06:00

North of Shady Grove, a little community near Laurel,Mississippi, a tornado damaged 35 homes in my sister's neighborhood. Her home was untouched. I thank God. If a tornado had flattened her house, I should thank God; and if a tornado flattened my house, I should thank God. And I should go a step further to praise God.

"The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." (Job 1:21B)

I don't understand God's ways, which are higher than mine, or his thoughts, which are so much higher than mine that I cannot even imagine how he thinks. What I do know is that because I love him and am called by him to be his child, he is working everything out according to his own plan. (Romans 8:28)

Thanking God, I enter into the door of his presence. Praising him, I enter into the court of his presence. Thanksgiving is recognizing what God has done. Praise is recognizing the God who did it. (Tony Evans)

"Enter into his gates with thanksgiving; and into his courts with praise." (Psalm 100:4, KJV)

Guest Blogger Apala Miller tells a story about her mission trip to Ireland.

2011-11-18T11:43:00.008-06:00

Apala Miller lives in Plano, Texas, where she is active in Stonebriar Church (the church where Chuck Swindoll is senior pastor.) She encourages many people, especially her two children. She has decorated her home beautifully, and her friends know what an excellent cook she is. She enjoys working out at the gym. Having known grief in her life, she has relied on the Lord to overcome whatever she has faced. She is a lovely inspiration to all she meets.

Recently she traveled to Ireland as a missionary. She tells the following story in her own words.

About the above picture Apala says, "We had a church retreat at this grand old manor in the country. It must have been magnificent in its day." She is also sharing two other photographs of Ireland. "I know! Looks like a picture book, doesn't it?"

Kirk’s Mom’s Story
Apala Miller

I had the privilege of visiting Ireland to help support a small church who is trying to bring the Bible to a striving nation. There were so many high points during the trip but one story stood out as priceless.

One of the mission couples involved with the church told the story of Kirk’s mom who defied Christianity all of her life. As a matter of fact, when Kirk and Sandlin married and decided to go into full time ministry, his mom put her foot down and said that she did not want to hear anything about their faith, their job, or God…period! So through the next thirty plus years the precious couple who missioned in Austria and then Ireland kept quiet about the Lord’s work but kept praying that mom would come to know the Lord in a personal way.

One day their mom heard about a mission trip going to India which intrigued her (at 72 years of age). So she signed up! She needed a referral and gave it to her son. Kirk didn’t know how to proceed since his mom was not a believer, but elaborated that she would give her heart of service to the cause although she was not a Christian. The pastor accepted her application! She did not go to any of the preparatory meetings prior to the trip except the last one. When she realized this was a Christian cause she didn’t want to go. But in her mind she couldn’t get out of it since she had already made the commitment.

India was pretty tough on her. She had very barren accommodations and even had to sleep in a tiny bed with another woman. But she served with all of her heart. At the end of the trip, when the team was on a layover waiting to come home, she asked each person to tell about their faith. After the stories were told, she decided to give her life to the Lord Jesus Christ!!!

There are so many lessons to surmise from this story. Never stop praying for someone even when it seems hopeless. The Lord has His way and His timing. And kudos to the pastor who didn’t reject mom because she wasn’t the perfect mission candidate. Perhaps he had some insight, maturity and a great faith that the Lord was in control of the situation. Also, I’m sure the Lord knew she would get a different perspective after visiting a third world country to see how blessed she truly was and how people in deprivation had a hunger for a Savior…and maybe how she was hungry for a Savior as well.

I have a feeling that this now 73 year old woman will have more impact in her years left than many of us who have been Christians for a long time.

Click here for the Kindle version of Do You Know How God Loves You?

Thanksgiving

2011-11-17T20:51:00.002-06:00

“O give thanks unto the LORD; for He is good; for His mercy endureth forever.” (I Chronicles 16:34) This verse is repeated verbatim five times in the book of Psalms.

We should give thanks every day. “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” (I Thessalonians 5:18) Give thanks forever: when things are good, when they seem not so good, all the time. Give thanks from the rising of the sun to the setting of the moon.

Think of the splendor of the creation: the vast glorious skies, majestic mountains, sparkling lakes, stately trees, delicate flowers, and bright stars. Think of the love all around us: human love of family and friends and love of God that exceeds any love people are capable of. Thank God through Christ.

(From Do You Know How God Loves You?)

Guest Blogger: Rob Sharp

2011-08-30T09:34:00.005-05:00

Rob Sharp, Worship Minister at Ellerbe Road Baptist Church, Shreveport, LA, is today’s guest blogger at DoYouKnowHowGodLovesYou.blogspot.com. I first met Rob – we called him Robby back then – when he was in high school. He and my daughter Christie became friends at band camps and district honor bands. Rob is a percussionist. When he attended Louisiana Tech, my husband, who taught trumpet there and directed the concert band, had the highest regard for him.

Rob says, “I was a band director for 4 years (LA, AR, TX) before surrendering to fulltime ministry. I then got my Masters from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and have been on staff at churches in Louisiana and Texas involved in worship ministry for the past 11 years.”

Mr.Cheatham shared a little story with me. “Anytime I get a chance I pass along the wisdom your husband passed down to me about being a successful professional musician, a lot of which could be described as how to be an effective and committed church musician/worship leader. It has seved me well as a professional and worship leader!”
•Be on time
•Be prepared
•Don’t make it about you
•Serve the song
•Be a good person and work well with others
•Remember where your talent comes from
•Be grateful

When Rob wrote the following, he was going through a difficult time in his life:

Hopelessness

Hopelessness is not a fun thing to experience. I would like to propose there may be times that we aren’t hopeless enough. That just doesn’t sound right, does it? Well, it all depends on who our hope is in. Even as believers we tend to feel hopeless about situations, because we cannot fix them.

If we are truly hopeless we would stop trusting in ourselves and start trusting Jesus and what he accomplished on the cross for us. Hopelessness stems from not being in control and we are not. But we know who is and there comes a time when we need to act like we know Him and place our trust in Him.

So how does one do that? The same way we grow in our relationship: we choose to praise Him, pray to Him, and press into His word deeper. I am not saying that is easy, but it is a choice! To praise Him in the midst of the storm is something even the disciples had trouble with.

If we are hearing His take on the situation, we know that He is control and we are letting Him guide us through it, we suddenly discover true hope. It’s not always about Him delivering us out of a situation; sometimes it about Him carrying us through it.

Faith, hope and love and the greatest of these is love. He is love; so get to know who love is and let Him be the finisher of your faith and give you hope beyond yourself. See He loves you enough to deliver you through situations instead of delivering you out of it because it develops perseverance, perseverance - character, and character – hope.

Romans 5:3-5
3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Click here for the Kindle version of Do You Know How God Loves You?

Vonda Skelton's Blog

2011-08-29T23:28:00.002-05:00

Noted author and inspirational speaker Vonda Skelton has given me the privilege of contributing as a guest blogger on her Christian Writer's Den Blog. Visit her blog here.

Guard My Ax by Mary Lou Cheatham

Grandpa Bud lived at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century in rural Mississippi. He had a loyal dog that he trained to help him with his work. Grandpa's land was a mixture of fields and forests of virgin timber. He cut trees for fuel and to build a new house. Often he worked alone or with one other relative. . . .

Guest Blogger: Marion McCann

2011-07-09T12:04:00.006-05:00

Marion McCann – Miss Marion as my daughter Christie called her – was a Brownie den mother when I first met her. She and her husband John spent years caring for their son Jake, who suffered a traumatic brain injury and finally went to be with his Lord. She knows grief and pain firsthand.

She was an opinion columnist for the Ruston Daily Leader for five years. Her articles dealt with the town of Ruston, Louisiana, during her life and reaching back into her mother's childhood.

She became a fulltime "Over the Road" truck driver to help support her family. To this day, she keeps on trucking. She contributed this poignant story for the blog, Do You Know How God Loves You?

Here's the story:

I have a short book wanting to be written about how I deal with grief moment by moment with God. He saves my literal sanity by infusing me without ceasing in one moment so I can make it to the next. He has brought me a long way.

Yesterday cannot be changed and tomorrow may not arrive but to live His will in each moment builds my life into something tolerable, even desirable. He gives me strength to endure and reach out, which I was unable to do for a long time due to losing part of my heart, my Jake. I had nothing more to give. At least, I didn't think I did.

For example: Poteau, Ok, night before last. I was on my way in from the fuel pumps and saw a man sitting by the curb on a duffle bag--he looked worn out...a hitchhiker or someone really down on his luck. I signaled to him to come here.

He arose and left his belongings unguarded and walked over with an inquisitive look on his face. I said, “Go get your stuff and get in here where you can cool off. I am buying you supper.”

A big smile and then he said, “I have not showered in days. You don't want me near you.”

I explained to him, “I get a free shower ticket for buying fuel and you may have the ticket but I am in a hurry so get in here, pick out whatever and however much you want to eat and drink and have leftover for the next meal then go shower, it will be all paid for when I leave.”

He picked out pizza and chicken, a candy bar and a two-liter Mountain Dew. I told the cashier, “This man has had a hard time so until he can find a way to move on, please let him refill his ice cup and use the truckers lounge after I leave.”

I gave him the shower coupon and went to my truck to check my oil and wash the windshield. I noticed he did not go straight to the shower but was sitting on the curb again, well into a piece of his pizza- fingers dripping with strands of cheese--lesson here is don't expect a starving man to jump in the shower before he is fed.

Before I began to try to live each given moment the very best I knew how, I would never have approached a hungry, dirty stranger and been almost bossy in my request to offer help.

His comment keeps ringing in my heart: “You don't have to do this.” (My unvoiced thought: oh, yes, I do.)

What I did say was, “Man-you are my brother in Christ and I don't want my brother out here stranded with nothing to eat and no way to get cleaned up!”

A backward glance was rewarded with a big wave of thanks and goodbye! I believe he will go on to help someone else down the road!

I have a bag full of tales from the road thanks be to God!

There is one that happened on the road to Goliad in Texas. The Mexican man was barefoot and carrying a very tired pet cat named El Gato, Cat in Spanish. His shoes hung from one shoulder by tied together laces...his feet were blistered and bleeding...you can fill in the blanks and believe me to be foolhardy--but the outcome was a good one. (And, I bet you would have done what I did!)

Click here for the Kindle version of Do You Know How God Loves You?

Guest Blogger: Donna Barton

2011-07-08T09:25:00.004-05:00

Donna Barton, author and illustrator of a beautiful children's book about Yahweh, the name of God, will have a book signing July 16, 2011. Donna has contributed a guest blog, in which she tells how she was inspired to write this book:

Searching

Searching, always searching! It seems like that is the story of my life. And as I get older the searching consumes my day. I search for answers. What should I believe? Which religion is closest to what God desires for me? How do I meet the needs of my family? Now I search for my glasses,which are on top of my head, my wallet, which is in the refrigerator crisper (true story).

You get the idea. It was during one of my searches for deeper meaning in my life that I took a Bible study called the Names of God. It was there I learned the proper name of God – Yahweh. Because the name of God was taken so seriously, the Jewish people would not say the name aloud so we are not really sure how to pronounce it.

The Jewish tradition maintains that God's name is spoken as a breath; inhale "Yah".the first breath of a newborn as it emerges from the womb. Exhale "Weh". The last breath a person takes before his eyes are glazed over by the final enemy Christ will crush- death. I sat there, I consciously breathed His name in an attitude of prayer and my life was changed.

I went home and wrote a children's prayer book called Yahweh. As inspiration for the illustrations of children and animals in an attitude of prayer, I used Psalm 150:6 "Let everything that has breath praise the LORD." The children in the book are doing the things kids do with their breath. They are blowing bubbles, scattering dandelion puffs, blowing up balloons, flutes, and gasps of excitement when they see a ladybug or a hummingbird.

I am always intrigued when I read the book to children. Their little faces are rapt as they learn to praise God every moment with their breath. My heart was warmed one day as I saw a little one tug on mommy's skirt and say, "Mommy, I know God's name! With closed eyes, she breathed "Yah...Weh."

That is my purpose, for myself and for them. I want all of us to be aware of Him in every moment of our life and praise Him with every breath. The book, YAHWEH is a reality now. The book signing will be July 16, 2011 between 4 and 6 PM at 2715 James Louis Drive, Amarillo, TX 79110. Everyone who is interested is invited. Just come and eat cookies!

Click here for the Kindle version of Do You Know How God Loves You?

Happy Anniversary of the Birth of Our Great Nation

2011-07-03T20:48:00.000-05:00

We are to honor our nation with obedience and prayer, though we must never commit sin in response to an edict.

God requires us to honor and obey those who are in positions of authority over us. These rulers have a special obligation to perform their tasks well. They will be required to answer to God. If they fail to rule fairly, they will suffer His consequences.

Elohim -- the all powerful King, our Father-God, His perfectly loving and holy Son, the always tender and always powerful Holy Spirit...one God in three persons – created everything. Whatever nations that exist on this earth have their rulers, governments, and economies with His permission. He knows all our problems and is managing all of what goes on according to His master plan.

Even though we often fail to understand, He works whatever happens for good to and for all of us who love Him and are called from the foundation of the world according to His intentions and purposes. Nothing exists without His permission. No government rules Him, and no ruler can maintain his position except through God’s authority. (Romans 8:28)
Click here for the Kindle version of Do You Know How God Loves You?

The Father God

2011-06-20T22:32:00.003-05:00

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

William R. Moody had a rare privilege. He was able to say that his father, the famous evangelist Dwight L. Moody, lived for the glory of God. Few of us have fathers like that. Many of us have fathers who are abusive, mean, despicable, irresponsible, disloyal, or absent. We are told to think of our God as a Father. What if your father often beat you until you bled? Cursed you? Cheated on your mother? Never attended your school activities? Left the family?

Sometimes realizing that God is the ultimate loving Father is difficult – difficult but not impossible. Some of us need counseling. We have to look into our minds and see what a father should be. We need to look at Godly men, who have lived to glorify God. We can study great fathers around us. When we look carefully, we will find that none of them are perfect. Only God is.

While we may need professional help, finding it is difficult. Even after locating reliable counselors, we will realize that the professionals are not perfect. We have to guard against all sorts of dangers. Two realizations are key to our spiritual and psychological happiness.

We must forgive our earthly fathers, and we must accept our heavenly Father as perfect. Whatever the problems we may have faced cannot be transferred to our concept of our heavenly Father.

As Christians, we have the Father, Who knows what we need before we ask Him, loves to hear from us, loves us, dotes on us, saves and savors our prayers, created us in His image, sent His Son to save us when we were lost, and took us back into His eternal family. Once we claim the forgiveness He has offered through the sacrifice Christ Jesus made once for all time, our Father does not see any of our imperfections. Instead, when He looks at us, He sees Jesus.

It was not easy for the Father to give His Son Jesus so that He could forgive our sins. Neither is it easy for us to forgive the humanity of our earthly fathers. When we go to our Father God in Jesus’ name, we can see that He is perfect. We don’t have to solve all those problems before we turn our lives over to Him. He’ll accept us and help us just as we are.

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh
down from the Father of lights, with Whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." (James 1:17)
Click here for the Kindle version of Do You Know How God Loves You?

Lead Us Like a Shepherd

2011-06-19T18:55:00.002-05:00

“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (Luke 11:4)

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake,
Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil:
For Thou art with me;
Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
Thou annointest my head with oil;
My cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. (Psalm 23)

What are your concerns? Perhaps you are driving to work. Every job has its own stress. Or maybe you are driving home after a stressful day, and you need to cleanse your mind before you prepare to relax after work. Whatever you have in your life, turn it over to the Lord.

Whether you are self-employed, unemployed, attending school, disabled, retired, or caring for your family, you have concerns that may at times make you think you will lose your mind.

Your Creator cares about you and is waiting to hear from you. Move beyond the boring empty platitudes. Tell your Father exactly what is in your mind. Ask His help to face your struggles.

Praise Him and tell Him you love Him. You may have...or you may have had...an earthly father incapable of showing He cared for you; therefore, you may have trouble accepting the goodness of God. Your Father in heaven really does care.

Pray for your earthly father to your heavenly Father. What is needed? Is it healing, forgiveness, reconciliation? Replace the worries of past hurts with the precious balm of healing that God freely gives you.

Whatever your circumstances may be, God is working out a way to bless you in His own time. Trust Him.

Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for You. (I Peter 5:7)

Click here for the Kindle version of Do You Know How God Loves You?

J. B. Coats Day

2011-06-05T09:38:00.003-05:00

J. B. Coats is a Jones County, Mississippi, native and composer of the famous gospel song, "Where Could I Go But to the Lord?"

He will be honored Saturday, September 10, 2011, at a Gospel Singing at West Laurel Baptist Church, 1400 West 5th Street, Laurel, Mississippi.

(Contact: Bill Clark: billclarklive@live.com.)

For more informaiton about J. B. Coats, please to to this link:
blog entry I posted about J. B. Coats in 2009

A day honoring J. B. Coats is exciting for me personally. He was an ordinary man who grew up in my neck of the woods. My parents knew him. He was a great musician and teacher.

Here is a link to an inspiring recording of "Where Could I Go But to the Lord":
Gaithers and others

Click here for the Kindle version of Do You Know How God Loves You?

Sandia Peak Sunset

2011-05-21T23:32:00.002-05:00

Those who were with me and I had a lovely time going on the tram to have a meal at sunset in the restaurant on Sandia Peak. The pictures I am sharing are for no purpose except your enjoyment. It's a pretty world.

Click here for the Kindle version of Do You Know How God Loves You?

The Potter and the Clay, Jeremiah's Message

2011-05-14T16:14:00.003-05:00

When I get to heaven, I hope to sit down and have a conversation with Jeremiah. I want him to tell me about the way he was tortured but continued to exalt the Lord God Almighty.

The Potter and the Clay, Jeremiah's Message

After he died, I became angry.

2011-05-10T07:00:00.001-05:00

My husband was paralyzed five years. I spent those years trying to help him overcome his illness. After the constant challenge of spending every moment of my life helping him move and think . . . after being with him all the time, he died and left me alone. I didn't like being lonely. Who does? Suddenly when I realized he was gone, I was forced to think about something besides what I needed to be doing for my husband.

After he died, I became angry. Why had he not tried harder to get well? Why had he been so inconsiderate to die and leave me to reorganize? Now when I look back on those feelings, I realize how irrational my thought processes were, but they were my thoughts.

The grief was worse at the end of the day. A friend who had lost his wife told me that he learned the value of a long walk at sunset. I started ending my days with a long walk or bicycle ride. Sometimes I prayed, and sometimes I talked with friends and family on my cell phone.

Sundays were the hardest . . . .

“I'm Choking . . .But Life Moves On Along the Path of Grief” is an e-book devoted to discussing the journey all of us take when we work through grief. This Kindle book is available at Amazon.com. It is possible to download software that will allow Kindle books to be read on the computer screen.

Price Reduction

2011-05-09T12:26:00.003-05:00

The original price of the paperback book, Do You Know How God Loves You?, was originally $26.99. The price on Amazon.com is now $14.97.

The Kindle version is now $9.99.

Click on this video for more information about the book.

I'm Choking . . . But Life Moves On Along the Path of Grief (Insights about Grieving)

2011-05-08T22:03:00.003-05:00

My friends, I'm sharing a Kindle e-book about grieving. Mother's Day is perhaps the saddest day of the year for many of us. What I'm saying here is not to be taken as medical or psychological advice. If you need professional help, don't hesitate to get it. This book is simply a discussion of how it feels to grieve.

Believe me, I know. Like the rest of you, the longer I live the more I have to grieve about . . . and to be thankful for.

Click here to see a video about the book.

"I'm choking."

What does that mean? It could mean you've cried so hard that it's impossible to swallow. There's a choking feeling in your throat and chest. You know the feeling. If you have a choking sensation, it may be time to call 9-1-1 to make sure you are not having a heart attack. It is no coincidence that we have expressions such as "died of a broken heart" and "heartbroken." Sometimes these expressions are literal, not figurative.

"But life moves on along the path of grief."

It's a road we all travel. Although your grief is unique, there are certain aspects of every human being's grief that are alike.

I pray this book will warm your heart with its stories about some of the ways others have coped with the problem.

Buddy Walker’s Journey to the Big House

2011-04-17T17:20:00.011-05:00

“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” (Psalm 119:105)

Buddy Walker was a dear friend. He told me the following story and I wrote it as a devotional in Do You Know How God Loves You?

Still in the Family

When I was a boy growing up in Arkansas back during the depression, I lived in town. Like many people back then, my parents went broke. We lost everything we had; so we moved out to the country to a log house near my grandmother. She lived in a fine house with electricity.

At night sometimes, my mama would send me to my grandmother’s house. When I went, Mama always gave me a lantern to tote as I walked along the narrow path. As long as I stayed on the track of that narrow path and kept the lantern in my hand, I did just fine. I used to look forward to reaching the big house. I thought it musthave been something like heaven.

Buddy could have stepped off the path in boredom, desire for adventure, or carelessness. He could have tripped over a hollow log, which could have been the abode of unsavory beasts. Skunks, raccoons, opossums, and snakes may have been lurking in the dark shadows. He could have made a misstep into a bush and torn his pants or ripped the skin on his legs. If he had felt especially adventurous, he could have slipped off down the road to the Mississippi River or to a friend’s house.

With his loving, but strict family, he could be sure that someone would come looking for him, if he wandered off too far and took too long to reach his destination. If he arrived at his grandmother’s house bedraggled, ripped, and smudged, he would have been a boy required to give an account of himself. His grandmother would have taken him in and made him comfortable though. Can’t you just see her giving him a little hug?

He walked along that path with the lamp in his hand from the little house to the big house the way all of us are walking from this place to the big magnificent house of light, glory, grace, love, joy, and peace known as heaven! He walked along with angels guarding his footsteps.

“For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.” (Psalm 91:11-12)

Had he strayed, no matter what condition Buddy was in when he arrived at his grandmother’s house, he would still have been Buddy Walker. That is who he was as a part of the family. All his life he was still a Walker. These simple statements are obvious, but sometimes we need to be reminded that as brothers and sisters adopted into the heavenly Father’s family, we are always his beloved children.

And if he had gone off and fallen into the Mississippi River or been eaten by black bears or bobcats, he would have gone to the “big house” where his heavenly Father would have welcomed him. There’s no way for family members to lose!

April 11, 2011, three days before he would have had his ninety-first birthday, God sent an angel to take him home. I feel sure when he arrived at the pearly gates, a huge welcoming committee embraced him. On the front line must have been my husband, Bobby Cheatham. During the five years my husband was paralyzed Buddy visited him frequently. When Bobby was in HealthSouth Rehab Hospital in Ruston, Buddy visited us every week day. He made sure the therapists and Bobby were giving their best efforts. Some of the therapists thought Buddy was my husband’s father. Also he made sure I had time to go home so I could feed the dogs and cats, launder the clothes, and pick up the mail.

Even though I know Buddy is having a wonderful time praising God with his resonant bass voice, I can’t help feeling sad for his friends still here, his three sons, and especially for his sweet wife Irene. I can’t help weeping for the loss.

Thanks be to God for taking Buddy away from his suffering, for the sparkling example of Christ’s love evidenced in this man, for his witness, and for his homecoming.

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.” 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14

Click here for the Kindle version of Do You Know How God Loves You?

Click here for the Kindle version of Do You Know How God Loves You?

Anna, a Beautiful Picture of Devotion

2010-12-28T11:03:00.003-06:00

Jesus came to both men and women that they might receive salvation. The Father God selected a person of each sex to announce the coming of the Messiah. Like the nation of Israel that had long awaited the arrival of Jesus, these two people had waited a very long time. Inspired by the Lord, Isaiah in 742 B.C. revealed unique signs about the way the Messiah would come to His people and to the world. Anna had Isaiah’s words and a personal divine revelation that her Lord was to appear. The spirit of prophecy had left Israel more than 300 years before then, but immediately before Jesus’ birth, it was revived. There are only three verses about this remarkable woman, but the verses are Spirit-filled.

"And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser(Asher): she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity;.

"And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.

"And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of Him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem." (Luke 2:36-38)

Anna (whose name meant “gracious”) was a prophetess, a woman divinely inspired to speak God’s revelations. God, Who does not leave Himself without a witness, poured His Spirit on her. She was of the tribe of Asher, one of the northern tribes of Israel carried away as captives, but some of the tribe of Asher were not captured. Eventually much of the remnant of Asher had reunited with Judah and worshiped in Jerusalem.

She became a widow seven years after she married and had been serving the Lord at the temple for 84 years. If she had married at the age of 12, she would have been at least 103! Some scholars interpret the passage to mean she was 84. It was the practice at the temple to worship God continuously with fasting and prayer. (Psalm 134) She often took the night shift...amazing for 84 or 103 plus!

It was a glorious moment! While Simeon was proclaiming the Baby to be his Savior, Anna appeared from the background and thanked God for letting her see the Messiah. The old prophetess knew that the little baby was the One she had long awaited. She announced His arrival to the people who regularly flocked to the temple to pray for the deliverance of Jerusalem. Anna, Simeon, and a faithful core of believers were ready for the coming of the Lord!

What a beautiful woman Anna was! In her seasoned maturity, she had not grown weary of worshiping her beloved Lord. Her reverence brought her pleasure. Years and years passed while she observed the light of God’s glory moving closer in splendid brilliance. Then one day her great faith was rewarded by the vision of the Messiah, the joy of her desires. She responded by praising, rejoicing, and witnessing.

Anna realized that God loved her!

Quoted from Do You Know How God Loves You? The price of this book has been reduced on Amazon.com from $26.99 to $14.97.

Holding the Christ Child

2010-12-27T08:58:00.002-06:00

“For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.” (Luke 2:30)

Forty days after Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph took Him to the temple in Jerusalem for her purification and the Baby’s dedication. Like every other firstborn Jewish boy, He was dedicated to the Lord. They offered a sacrifice of either a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.

In Jerusalem, there was an old man named Simeon who carefully observed the laws of God and waited for their completion in the Person of the Messiah. The Holy Spirit guided him to the temple at the moment when Mary and Joseph arrived to present Jesus to the Father. His arrival at that moment was not a coincidence, and he did not simply happen to walk over to the right baby.

And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple. (Luke 2:25-27)

Seeing Mary and Joseph there with Jesus, he immediately recognized his Lord, a tiny Baby. He took the Anointed One into his arms and blessed the Lord.

Then took he Him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word: for mine eyes have seen Thy Salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a Light to lighten the Gentiles, and the Glory of Thy people Israel.” (28-32)

Simeon recognized Jesus, the Person, as Salvation, and he thanked God. We know he was ready to die then, but we don’t know how much longer he lived.

Simeon told Mary that a sword would pierce her soul, and he shared some profound prophecy. He explained that Jesus was “a Light to lighten the Gentiles, and the Glory of Thy people Israel.” The order of words indicates that the Gentiles would first accept the Messiah. Later the Jews will trust Him when He returns as their King. Simeon predicted a reversal of the original order – a new revelation.

Later, Jesus would say, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” (John 14:6) Jesus is the only way. Some pagan beliefs suggest that it is enough to follow the teachings of Jesus as one of many ways to work out our own salvation. There are no “almost” Christians. What is important is that people believe in Jesus as their Savior. Believing in His teachings is not enough.

Non-Biblical traditions maintain that Simeon was the son of the famous Pharisee Hillel, who was known as a great teacher among the Jews. Also Simeon is believed to be the father of Gamaliel, the famous Jewish lawyer who taught the Apostle Paul. Although this information is fascinating, it does not matter who Simeon’s father and son were. What is important is that he recognized the Baby he held in his arms as the Son of God.

Quoted from Do You Know How God Loves You? The price of this book has been reduced on Amazon.com from $26.99 to $14.97.

The Most Unlikely Witnesses

2010-12-25T07:44:00.002-06:00

Nowhere in the Bible is there a verse containing the birthday of Jesus. In the fourth century, the Western church (Roman Catholic) began celebrating Christmas on December 25. The Eastern church (Eastern Orthodox) celebrates it on January 6. The Biblical detail of shepherds watching their flocks fails to support either date because shepherds did not keep their flocks in the fields at night during the winter.

No one – not even church historians – can misconstrue the most important point of Christmas: Love descended to us. Angels sang to the shepherds in the fields about God’s divine love...glorious, sacred, holy...incarnate in a newborn baby filled with promise. Love is a gift, the endowment of the sovereign God. Love is the grace of God with its resultant grateful adoration of Him with an outflow of goodwill to all people.

On a quiet dark night the angels in their shining presence told the shepherds to go see the Savior. How strange that God would select them as witnesses! We enjoy the comparison of a shepherd to our God, and we love to contemplate the little shepherd boy David, who was anointed to be King of Israel by Samuel following God’s leading. Also we understand that a good shepherd would lay down his life for the sheep and that a sheep will follow only his master’s voice. The analogies that God uses are rich; most shepherds, however, were outcasts because they were unreliable. They were so accustomed to stealing and lying that they were not allowed to give testimony in courts of law. And here they are witnessing the arrival of the Messiah in a cattle stall.

From our God’s viewpoint, probability is not a law He follows. The amazing news for you is that He loved you enough to send Jesus to save you. All you have to do is believe the incredible story that the perfect God Man came and paid the blood sacrifice for your sin, arose from the dead, and went back to His Father to prepare a place for you. All you have to do is believe in repentance, but if believing seems impossible, ask Him to help your unbelief.

Having accepted the Lord’s salvation and received your commission to work for the Lord, you may not feel worthy, capable, interested, or motivated. God will take care of that. The God who sent a band of angels to sing a glorious announcement to a pack of shepherds lying on the ground under the stars...to send the shepherds to behold the most important Person who had ever been born...to tell them to spread the news of the Savior of the world...does not make mistakes. When He commissions you to do His bidding, realize that He in His infinite wisdom has not made His first mistake. He knows what He is doing and expects you to trust Him. Like the shepherds that night, run to be near Him.

And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. (Luke 2:17-18)

Quoted from Do You Know How God Loves You? The price of this book has been reduced on Amazon.com from $26.99 to $14.97.

June 30, “Will I Ever See Angels?”

2010-06-30T12:08:00.001-05:00

“We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” (II Corinthians 5:8)

“Will I ever see angels?” Has this question crossed your mind? The answer is another question: do you believe God?

If you have accepted Him as your Savior, you say, “Of course I do, and I know I will see God in heaven. There will be angels there. But will I see angels here on earth?”

Most of us do not see angels on a day-to-day basis. This lack of viewing celestial creatures is not evidence of a lack of worthiness or holiness. Don’t trouble yourself about it.

"Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God." (Colossians 2:18-19)

We must not allow people to convince us we should worship angels. We must not pay attention to people who become puffed up over their tales of the angels they have seen.

Whether or not you see angels, you are being helped by them on a daily basis. There comes a time when every Christian will be lifted into the arms of one or more angels and carried from the natural world into the spiritual world. Remember the story of Lazarus, the beggar, who was carried to Abraham’s bosom by the angels. (Luke 16)

We will go on the journey that begins with the discarding of these old bodies composed of carbon elements. At some time in the not-too-distant future, we will stop breathing, and our hearts will stop beating. The spiritual world is no more than a heartbeat away from our limited existence here on earth. None of us know exactly where heaven is, but we can be sure that we will be carried in a fine style by angels to the presence of God!

As the great evangelist Dwight L. Moody explained, our clay bodies will die: but our spiritual bodies will never die. He had the experience of drifting into heaven and coming back to earth. He told his family about seeing loved ones who had gone before. Also the Texas minister and author Don Piper has written some inspiring accounts of his death,journey to heaven, and return to earth. And we have the glorious information found in the word of God.

In conclusion the answer to the question, “Will I see angels here on earth?” is that if you have given your heart to the Lord Jesus, the angels will come to take you home at the point of death. If you don’t see angels before then, you will see them at the time of your departure.

What is much more wonderful is that you will see God!

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June 29, Standing and Gazing

2010-06-29T12:51:00.001-05:00

When Jesus ascended into heaven, people stood around and gawked. If we'd been there, we would have behaved the same way!

--And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:10-11)

We suppose those two men in white apparel were angels who explained to the audience of onlookers what was going on.

Jesus moved back to heaven to sit by His Father’s throne in the hub of the universe. He is like a King on a hill, where He surveys the combat on the earth beneath Him and in the air invisible to us. He can send hosts of angels, or He can conscript hosts of men and women to help with His causes. When He ascended into heaven, where He has all power, he left the disciples...and the rest of us…here to get busy with the work he left to be done. He will come back the same way he left. In the meantime, He told us, “Ye shall be witnesses unto me.” (Acts 1:8)

To read more thoughts about this subject, go to June 29, "Standing and Gazing" in DO YOU KNOW HOW GOD LOVES YOU?

Whether our loved ones can see us or even bother to look at us from heaven is a debated issue. What we do know is that Jesus is watching us! He went to heaven and sat down by the heavenly Father, but when Stephen was stoned Jesus stood in honor of this most noteworthy martyr! (Acts 7:56)

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June 28, Whom He May Devour

2010-06-28T22:12:00.002-05:00

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” (I Peter 5:8)

The devil knows us well. We are transparent to him just as we are to the heavenly angels.

He was one of them until he spoke his famous five statements of egomania:

1. I will ascend into heaven.
2. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.
3. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north.
4. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.
5. I will be like the most High. (Isaiah 14: 13-14)

Then he became the ugly old devil. Most Christians believe there is a devil. He is running around looking for our weak spots – our Achilles’ heels – so he can attack us. Even though he may cause us some temporary pain by trying to pull us away from the Father’s love, he cannot succeed if we have given our hearts to God. It is amazing that he continues to try. He tried to tempt Jesus the same way!

What do you believe about him? Do you believe he is a fallen angel? Do you realize that he really was the most beautiful of all the angels and that he chose to rebel against God?

One more question as an aside: do you really believe that good angels exist and that they do God’s bidding? Angels are like the frosting on a cake. Some of us don’t really believe our cake should be anything but plain. Somehow we don’t think we deserve helpers that make our lives easier. We seem to want to have everything as difficult as possible so we can be as self-sufficient as possible. We don’t want to give God the credit for making our lives work. This mindset is one more way of failing to give God the glory. It is one more way the devil lies to us by denying God’s grace...God’s love.

And yet another question: do you believe that Jesus came to the earth, died on the cross to pay for our sins, became our sin, arose, and went to heaven where He sits on the right hand of His Father? I have to ask: do you realize that the Holy Spirit came to live in your heart when you accepted Jesus as your Savior? You know that you can ask your heavenly Father in the name of Jesus for whatever you need, and He’ll give it to you if you ask within His will, don’t you? He really will send His angels to protect you and keep you from falling. Trusting God is honoring God – giving Him the Glory.

The battle between the good and the evil angels is being fought over you because you are the apple of God’s eye and Satan, the fallen angel, hates you.

--And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:26)

In summary, the ultimate question: Do you know how God loves you? He gave His only Son so you would not perish. Why can we not accept the simplicity of God’s love?

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June 27, Angels Don’t Waste Time!

2010-06-27T15:28:00.001-05:00

“And of the angels He saith, ‘Who maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire.’ ” (Hebrews 1:7)

Angels' messages are straightforward with a military crispness.

Angels wait around until they are given their flying orders; and when they are commanded to move, they proceed at a rate faster than sound or light. We know that some of them fly, but not all of them have wings. More often they simply appear where they need to be.

Most of the time they are invisible, but they often take on the form of human beings. They can be visible to one person or animal and at the same time be invisible to another person nearby. As soon as they finish an assignment, they vanish.

When they speak, they often speak quickly. They come to people with direct commands from God, and they don’t waste time. When the angel appeared to help Peter escape from jail, he hit Peter on the side and ordered,"Arise up quickly" (Acts 12:7)

When an angel appeared to issue Joseph a warning about Herod’s decree to kill the male children in order to destroy Jesus, the new King, he demanded, "Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt." (Matthew 2:13)

For more on this subject go to June 27 in DO YOU KNOW HOW GOD LOVES YOU?

God's good angels have no interest in connecting emotionally with us, but our heavenly Father is interested in everything we want to tell Him. We need to keep our communication lines open with our Abba.

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June 26, Heavenly Spectators

2010-06-26T16:51:00.001-05:00

Here is evidence that the angels receive constant communication about us through God. Jesus told a story:

--What woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it?

And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, “Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.”

There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. (Luke 15:8-10)

The angels of heaven are watching all of us, they know our spiritual conditions, they love us with pure unselfish love, and they want us to receive salvation. When a lost person accepts Christ, they celebrate.

Angels are watching over us in other areas also. When we struggle through our problems, the angels are watching on the sidelines. They step in to help us when God directs them to. As patient creatures, they realize something we need to keep in mind: whatever God send us in our lives is done on His time schedule.

--And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. (Roman 8:28)

For more evidence about the way the angels watch over us, read the June 26 devotional in DO YOU KNOW HOW GOD LOVES YOU? Also go to Luke 14:4-7.

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June 25, Daniel, Ezekiel, and John

2010-06-25T09:28:00.001-05:00

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12)

Daniel, a handsome, intelligent young nobleman, grew up in Jerusalem. King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judah and took him to Babylon. Instead of embracing the religion of his new country, he became closer to Jehovah than ever. To him, his Lord was more than a ceremonial deity. Living his life far from his homeland and the temple of God, he exhibited a genuine faith in God. (Daniel 1)

Ezekiel, a priest and prophet, also lived in Jerusalem then. Babylonians took him with a group to an area by a river. The people in his camp were musicians, and the captors wanted them to provide entertainment, but these broken-hearted songbirds could not sing. By the rivers of Babylon, they sat down and hung their harps in the willows. When they thought of Zion, they wept. (Psalm 137) But Ezekiel turned his eyes toward his Lord.

John, in a later age, was one of the twelve given to Christ by the Father. He had been close to Jesus. After the Lord ascended, their relationship changed. No longer walking the countryside with Jesus, he saw the Lord in a new way. Refusing to worship a wicked ruler and insisting on preaching the gospel, he was banished to Patmos, a remote island, where he turned his eyes toward his Lord.

What do these three men have in common? First, they were exiles that drew closer to the Lord. Also each received a message with a divine inspiration to write. Angels assisted the Lord in giving these men revelations of the unseen world of the kingdom of God. These three men recorded much of what we call the apocalypse, which means “the lifting of the veil” with an emphasis on the end times.

All books of the Bible show us God’s truths, which are beyond the understanding of ungodly men. Daniel, Ezekiel, and John were used especially to show the way that God works in the world we cannot see. Angels, the servants of His bidding, are all around us and are engaged in continuous activity important to the kingdom of God.

For more information, read June 25 in DO YOU KNOW HOW GOD LOVES YOU?
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June 24, Worms

2010-06-24T14:35:00.001-05:00

“For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low.” (Isaiah 2:12)

Peter finally made his way into the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where a prayer meeting was in progress. They were praying for his release while he stood at the door trying to get inside and they wouldn’t believe he was there. (Acts 12)

After an angel had loosened Peter from the chains that bound him to two soldiers and led him through the heavily guarded gates, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark. He told them to be quiet while he told them how the Lord had taken him out of prison. When he finished talking, he slipped away to a secret place.

The soldiers were upset. Herod commanded they be put to death. Because of what happened to Herod, there is some question as to whether they were executed. Historians say that Herod was looking forward to giving Peter’s head on a charger to the Jews.

When the angel rescued Peter, Herod was embarrassed. To save face, he moved his headquarters from Judea to Caesarea. He tried to detract from his defeat by celebrating a festival in honor of Caesar. On the second day of the festival, he dressed in his royal robe and made an oration. The people shouted,

--It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. (Acts 12:22)

(That cheer reminds me of the attitude people today assume about rock-and-roll stars, actors, and talk show hosts. Some celebrities have started considering themselves to be gods and designed their own religions.)

When the people cried out that Herod was a god, he basked in the joy of the hot air of flattery. While he sat there all puffed with pride on his throne, God sent an angel to strike him down. Indulging in the kind of glory that a man should never receive, he looked up, according to the historian Josephus, and saw an owl perched over his head. He had a violent pain in his abdomen.

--And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost. (23)

He died at the age of fifty-three after being king for seven years.

An angel of justice punished proud King Herod on the spot in front of his subjects he was trying to impress. It is not unusual for God to punish unbelieving evildoers on this earth.

We do not have the insight to know when God is doing so; and when we speak on His behalf about the disasters that befall people, we become self-righteous proud people. Judging is not one of our jobs.

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June 23, “Open the Door, Rhoda!”

2010-06-24T11:55:00.002-05:00

“Now as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers, what was become of Peter.” (Acts 12:18)

King Herod decided he needed to vex the members of the early church. (Acts 12) For the sport of tormenting Christ’s followers, he killed John’s brother James with a sword. During Passover week there were many Jews in town. Herod was enjoying more and more popularity. Therefore he arrested Peter and assigned four quarternions, (four-men squads) of soldiers to guard him until Passover was finished. Then he planned to kill Peter. Surely sixteen soldiers would keep anyone from stealing this prize prisoner.

God had work for Peter to do. Just before ascending into heaven, Jesus told Peter to feed His sheep. (John 21), but at this point, the man was merely beginning his ministry.

Moreover, the church, seeking the permissive will of God, prayed without ceasing for him. Jesus, during His earthly ministry, had invested His time and efforts teaching this immature man Peter, and now the impetuous fisherman had grown up. He was an Apostle,especially gifted by the Holy Spirit, mature in his knowledge, and bold with his message. at a preacher he had become! Then, came the night before his scheduled execution. Sleeping soundly in jail, he lay chained between two soldiers. Sentries stood at the door.

Peter awakened to a bright light in his face with an angel gently hitting him on his side and telling him to get up quickly. The chains fell off his hands. The angel told him to throw his outer garment on, tighten his belt, and fasten his sandals. As the angel led him through the gates and down a street, Peter thought he was dreaming. Then the angel left him.

He came to himself and said,"Now I know of a surety, that the Lord hath sent His angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod." (11)

Getting his bearings, he went to the house of Mary, John Mark’s mother, where a large number of people were meeting there to pray. When he arrived, he knocked on the gate-door, and a girl named Rhoda answered. He spoke to her, and she recognized his voice.Instead of letting him in, she became excited and happy, slammed the door in his face,and ran to tell the others. They didn’t believe her.

“You’re crazy,” they said, but she insisted. “It’s his angel,” they argued. Eventually they let him inside. As a result of Peter’s escape,

--The word of God grew and multiplied. (24)

Have you noticed some of the times in your life when God’s angels provided you and your loved ones supernatural protection? What purpose does God have? Ask Him.

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June 22, The Battle of All Battles

2010-06-23T22:53:00.003-05:00

“And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.” (Revelation 16:16)

Since the Middle Ages, Bible scholars have ranked angels into nine categories. We are aware of archangels, seraphim, and cherubim. Other categories are based on this verse in Colossians:

--For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him. (Colossians 1:16)

We need to realize two historical facts about this verse. There have been debates over the interpretation of the verse in Colossians and whether there are fewer types. (Some say that seraphim and cherubim are two names for the same.) Also, the Colossians were caught up in a heresy of placing too much emphasis on angels and saying that people had to communicate through them to reach Christ. What matters is that there are a vast number of angels, an amount that God only knows and that they are a potent source of varied servants, warriors, protectors, and messengers subject to no one but God.

In the world we seldom see, there is a violent war going on, and it will end in a visible battle at a place called Armageddon, a flat-top hill (Har means hill, and the place is known as Megiddo.) about 60 miles north of Jerusalem. This is not symbolism! More than 200 battles have been fought there throughout history. In World War I there was a battle between Great Britain and the Ottoman Empire there. Britain won. My favorite battle in history is the one in which the prophetess-judge Deborah (an Israelite wife and mother) and the general Barak led the Israelites to victory over their enemies. (Judges 4-5) Actually the Lord sent bad weather and angels to fight it for them!

Armageddon is a real place with a real battlefield where the outcome of the whole world will be determined in God’s own time. The wicked leaders of the world under the leadership of the anti-Christ will assemble there with their armies,and the angels of the Lord will defeat the evil forces for all times.

If we believe God and have trusted Him to be our Savior, we have no reason to be anxious;for we can look to the blessed hope of the last promise and the last prayer of the Bible:

--He Which testifieth these things saith, “Surely I come quickly Amen.” Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

--The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. (Revelation 22:20-21)

The Messiah has told us He will return soon. He’s on His way. When the time is right, His army of angels will defeat the demons in a real physical battle at Armageddon. Once we are on the Lord’s side, we don’t need to be afraid, even though we know the battle of all battles is coming. We can join with John and all the other people He has set apart to say,“Let it be, Lord. Come, blessed Jesus!” While we are waiting for Him, He is reminding us that He loves us. Let’s enjoy His love and share it with other people, as He has instructed us to do.

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June 21, Passing Through the Door

2010-06-21T08:45:00.002-05:00

“Then said Jesus unto them again, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.’” (John 10:7)

God’s cherubim are the watchers and the holy ones who guard the door. The cherubim are mighty warriors with both wings and arms. They are described as having wheels within wheels. It is not clear whether the wheels are part of their anatomy or part of vehicles.

They have eyes looking all different directions, and they carry fire around with them.These ferocious fighters surround God and constantly do His bidding. (Ezekiel 9 and 10)

God does not need the cherubim to do His bidding, any more than He needs any of us;yet He chooses to use the members of His creation in His special ways to help with His work. God never sleeps and does not need to eat. He does not need angels or people to take care of Him. He assigned cherubs to guard the gate to the garden of Eden, which is located in an unknown place; they surround God on His throne, where they shut out any who would attack His glory and holiness; and they guarded the entrance to the tabernacle and temple Holy of Holies, where only the high priest could enter at appointed times to mediate with a blood offering to cover the sins of the people. This was a single day of the year.

In the blessed time after the coming of the Messiah, now that we have accepted the salvation bought for us with the precious shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, no one stops us from entering God’s throne room, the Holy of Holies.

During His earthly ministry, Jesus told a parable recorded in the Gospel of John. He said,"I am the Door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved." (John 10:9)

Those who understood the work of the cherubim should have easily understood the analogy of Jesus as the door of a sheepfold, but since many of them were blinded to the obvious, they simply didn’t get it.

Finally when He paid the price by dying on the cross, the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom. Those who went looking for God would no longer find Him there behind that ripped curtain. That ripped curtain is an important reminder of the way God loves you! The Apostle Peter reassures us with these words:

--But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. (I Peter 2:9)

Peter is talking to us, the believers in Christ! You and I are especially selected by God, Who loves us, to be His extraordinary people. He has appointed us to function as priests, with the right to enter His holy presence. He has instructed His cherubim to let us pass through the door, and He is sending us to tell others about His wonderful works demonstrating the way He loves all of us. He has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light, and He has changed us from nonentities into significant somebodies, not because He needs us, but because He loves us!

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June 20, Cherubim

2010-06-20T23:06:00.004-05:00

Cherub -- a cute little chubby angel like the ones in fine old oil paintings and scarf collars? Wrong! Are cherubim reincarnate human babies? No! What are they then? They are fiercely powerful beings that guard the glory of God and protect us from danger. When we study the Bible, we must redo our idea of what cherubs look like.

When God turned Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eve, he placed cherubim to guard the gate. (Genesis 3:24) These protectors were not the popular wide-eyed rosy-cheeked soft creatures of mythology.

In the scripture we encounter our Lord, who has infinite supernatural power surrounded by warrior cherubs guarding His glory.

See the devotional on June 20 in Do You Know How God Love You?

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A Few Thoughts about the Glory of God

2010-06-19T09:21:00.002-05:00

"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory." (Isaiah 6:3)

The angels classified as seraphim know that the glory of God is all over the earth. God created the entire world that way. We are required to worship God and nothing else -- not the creation, not the angels; but when we look at the earth we cannot miss the glory that He created. Reflections of God's glory are in the day lilies in the backyard, the dainty little humming birds, the moon rising. "The whole earth is full of His glory."

Here's a simple analogy. I made a luscious chocolate cake, but I am not the cake. It's difficult to see why so many intelligent human beings are confused by the obvious.

When we turn our lives over to Christ, we become the dwelling place of the glory of God!The Holy Spirit within us is like God's shekinah glory within the holy temple.

Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are not our own. (1 Corinthians 6:19)

Give unto the LORD the glory due Him.

Read more in the June 19th page in Do You Know How God Loves You?

June 18, What can angels not do? What can you not do?

2010-06-18T12:41:00.001-05:00

(To read more about this subject, go to Do You Know How God Loves you? June 18.)

When Lucifer sinned and fell from heaven, he took one third of the angels with him. The remaining angels are free from sin. The ones who did not fall remain sinless. When one of us repents, the angels have a big celebration. (Luke 15:10) They long for us to be reborn.

What can angels not do? They cannot give their testimony because they don't have one. They cannot say they were lost but now found. They cannot testify to what they have not experienced.

They cannot say,“While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) When the Lord appeared to Isaiah in the temple and said, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” (Isaiah 6:8), He did not have plans to send angels because He did not create them for that task.

It is our job to say, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved,” (Romans 10:9)

Now what can you not do?

You cannot cause people to be saved! All you can do is share the message. You cannot soften hard hearts. The Holy Spirit has that job!

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June 17, Sweet Incense

2010-06-17T18:29:00.002-05:00

Like candles? And incense? We don't know all the details about God. We'll have to wait until we go live with Him to discover more. One thing we do know is that He loves incense.

When Isaiah encountered the Lord God Jehovah in the temple, the seraphim (high ranking angels) were busy burning incense. the entire temple was filled with smoke. (Isaiah 6)

There's a magnificent scene in heaven that John the Apostle share in Revelation 8:3-4. John went on a tour through heaven. He discovered that the angels were mixing incense with the prayers of the people who believe in Him. Imagine that!

Picture our heavenly Father loving us – lavishing affection on us! He has angels mixing our prayers with the incense! He treasures our prayers. I think that Jesus and the Holy Spirit must be sorting through our prayers to sweeten them by changing them from our raw selfish requests to something noble and perfect for the Father. The angels mixing them with incense are stirring the pot like kitchen helpers.

The Lord of the universe sits on His throne and waits to hear from us! In this age of easy access to God’s throne room, how sinfully prideful are we when we offer Him irreverent, slovenly prayers?

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June 16, Send Me!

2010-06-16T09:53:00.003-05:00

“Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’Then said I, ‘Here am I; send me.’ ” (Isaiah 6:8)

The seraphim have the responsibility of hovering over the throne of God. We know that God does not need them, and He does not need any of us. He does not need the universe. No matter what He creates or if He allowed all His creation to disappear, He would still be God. And yet the seraphim have the vocation of guarding God’s holiness.

We have our jobs too. After the seraph placed a coal on Isaiah’s tongue, God asked a rhetorical question. Any question He asks is rhetorical. Since He already knows the answer, He asks to help us get our hearts right. He is running a volunteer army, not a draft board.He knows our answer to every question before we ask; yet in His perfect wisdom, He does not make us feel coerced. After Isaiah was cleansed of unrighteousness, God asked,“Whom shall I send?” Then He went on to ask, “Who will go for us?” (I believe that the word “us” referred to the triune nature of God.)

For the first time in his life, Isaiah was learning what he was supposed to do . . . what his mission in life . . . his purpose . . . his reason to be was. “Here am I: send me!” Can’t you just imagine that he shouted those words with reverent enthusiasm? It was not a tentative response. He was a transformed man. His unclean tongue became a spirit-filled, heavensent flame.

At Christmastime we love to listen to Handel’s Messiah. Most of the words in that magnificent cantata are quoted directly from Isaiah’s book, which foretold the events of the coming of the Messiah to the earth. Also he prophesied much about the end times. Few men have been more inspired by the Holy Spirit than Isaiah was.

The mission God gave him on the day of the vision was a strange one. He was to go and tell people about the Lord, but God let him know that most of them would not believe. (6:9) His job was to tell, whereas the Holy Spirit’s role is to convict. God told Isaiah to go to the children of Israel. He told us to go into all the world and to preach the gospel to all
nations.

--And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway,even unto the end of the world.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

Like the seraphim and like Isaiah, we need to have an attitude toward God that says “Only Thou art holy” and “Here am I.” After we have given our hearts to Him, He will commission us to do what He has planned for us in His own way and His own time. Meanwhile, we must pray with bold fervor, “Send me!”

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June 15, Purification by Fire

2010-06-15T14:24:00.002-05:00

Feeling sad because King Uzziah had died, Isaiah, who had been trying to be a righteous man in his own way, went into the temple (not the Holy of Holies) and was astonished to see the Lord on a high throne. The six-winged seraphim were above the throne. (Isaiah 6)

In the eyes of his contemporaries, Isaiah had lived a righteous life. It appears that he had followed the codes of behavior outlined for him as a man in Israel. Having followed the appropriate customs, practiced the established rituals, and walked in the path of his own righteousness, shouldn’t he have found himself worthy? But in the presence of the glory of God, he suddenly knew otherwise.

Realizing his own unworthiness before the Lord, Isaiah said, “Woe is me!” He cried out that he was a man of unclean lips living in a people of unclean lips and that his eyes had seen the King Jehovah. He was in agony under the bright light of God’s glory. When he saw God as completely powerful and completely holy, he saw himself as he truly was . . . a sinner. The habits of his speech represented the vileness of his heart. Even though he knew he had not been a bad man in human terms, he realized how flawed he was when he compared himself to his perfect God.

--Then said I, "Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."

--Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth and said, “Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.” (Isaiah 6:5-6)

A reference to baptism by fire is made in a comment by John the Baptist, who said that he baptized with water but that Jesus baptized with fire and with the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 3:11, Luke 3:16) The closer we move to the Lord, the more we see His perfection, and the more we realize that the only righteousness we can claim is the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

With Isaiah, we find ourselves expanding our sense of reality. The triune God is real, heaven is real, and the cleansing power of salvation is real. God the Father is so holy that He cannot tolerate the sight of our sins. When He looks at us, He sees His perfect Son. Like the seraphim, we need to cry out, “Holy, holy, holy!”

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June 14, Seraphim, Isaiah, and You!

2010-06-14T13:13:00.004-05:00

What about you? How much does God love you? What special mission does He have for you?

A man who recognized he was a mere sinner stood in the presence of the Lord God Almighty in the temple. The glory of God filled the place. There were angels called seraphim there. He described them in detail. Read about it in Isaiah 6. The man Isaiah had no reason to lie. Read his story and believe it. Isaiah discovered how much God loved him and how much God would ask him to do.

Studying angels, we find them amazing! Although they are impressive, they never point to themselves. They point us to the Lord. When we catch a glimpse of God, we realize that we are inadequate in our natural state to approach Him. But we must! He has revealed Himself to us, and He will some day bring us into the presence of His glory. Ironically while we feel so deficient because of our vile, sinful nature, we have an urgency to ask Him to change us and use us. We cannot escape our potential for service.

He tells us that we are created in His image for His purpose. Only through the aacrifice of the Son can we find the peace of God’s presence.

To learn more about what happened to Isaiah, go to the June 13 devotional in Do You Know How God Loves You?

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June 13, God’s Hero

2010-06-13T15:06:00.001-05:00

“And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years. And the angel answering said unto him, ‘I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings.’ ” (Luke 1:18-19)

Zacharias, a priest, was married to Elisabeth, a woman faithful to him and to God. They had no children. When Zacharias stepped inside the Holy of Holies to perform his priestly duties, an angel appeared before him and told him he would have a son, whose name would be John. This was the John who was to become known as the Baptist. The son was to be a special man with the task of making the final preparations for the Messiah.

Gabriel was that angel. He is not an archangel like Michael. His name Gabriel means “God’s hero” or “God is great,” and as God’s special messenger, he lived up to his name. He always delivered powerful news from God. In the Old Testament, he appeared to Daniel and explained about the end times. In the New Testament, not long after he appeared to Zacharias, he appeared to Mary.

If he appeared other times, he did not identify himself. Like Michael, Gabriel is in a category all by himself. We do not know that he plays the trumpet. Scripture does not substantiate the stories about Gabriel and his trumpet. As much as I would love to say that Gabriel is a trumpet player, I cannot find any evidence to support the idea. Neither can the theologians whose works I have read. All we know is that Gabriel is a unique angel with his own unique missions.

You are also unique! You are significant in God’s plan. Seek His guidance to know what it is He has designed you to do better than anyone else can do it. God loves you that much!The thought is a sweet nectar to the soul. The process of God’s creation and the way it continues to play out through the ages leads us to contemplate His glory. In His majesty,He has made us.

"Know ye that the LORD He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture." (Psalm 100:3)

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June 12, All must worship.

2010-06-12T22:20:00.004-05:00

Whom do you worship and why?

At sundown in the pleasant June weather, I sat with a family member in the amphitheater at Carlsbad Caverns to see the bat flight. As the sun set over the New Mexico landscape, we sat with 200 other people to watch the splendid show of unique creatures flying out into the night to search for food. We spoke in hushed tones so we would not disturb the bats.

The bats are like us in a few respects. They are mammals that care for their young, they have five digits, and they are self-sufficient. They are, however, quite different from us. The bats we saw use echolocation to tell them where they are going. If the baby bats at Carlsbad fall to the bottom of the cave, the mothers do not bother to pick them up. In another part of the world, one type of bat adopts the baby bats that fall.

How amazing that God created so many types of creatures that can adjust to varied environments! Why are we human beings, who possess limited knowledge of the universe, incredulous that God could create invisible beings? God’s creation is marvelous with infinite variation. The more we see and know of the creation, the more we should want to glorify the Creator!

“For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him.” (Colossians 1:16)

To worship anything or anyone that God has created is an assault on our Lord who loves us. Worship the Creator! "Worship God." (Revelation 22:9)

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June 11, Don’t Worship Angels!

2010-06-11T21:05:00.003-05:00

“Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.” (Colossians 2:18-19)

Don’t let anyone defraud you by acting as an umpire. In other words, don’t put up with people who expect you to bow and scrape to them and their false teachings. Don’t let people put you down. Don’t worship angels. Don’t pay attention to people who go around telling wild tales that they have made up. They get all puffed up in their vanity.

Christ is the head of the body, the church, and He is the One who puts us together in one piece. We can grow strong only with the nourishment that God provides. The great British preacher Charles Spurgeon explains:

In Paul’s day there were some who took off the attention of the Christian from the worship of God to the worship of angels. “Angels,” said they, “these are holy beings; they keep watch over you; you should speak of them with great respect”; and then when they grew bolder, they said, “You should ask their protection”; and then after a little while they said, “You should worship them; you should make them intermediate intercessors”; and so, step by step, they went on and established an old heresy which lasted for many years in the Christian church, and which is not dead even now, and thus the worship of angels crept in.

The stories I share with you about angels are intended simply to help make us aware of the spiritual warfare and protection that surrounds us. Through the ages, many Christians have allowed these verses and the heretical practices of other Christians to frighten them away from learning about angels. There is nothing wrong with exploring what the Bible has to say about the subject.

Our passion and our joy revolve around Jesus Christ, who was crucified to pay for our sins. (I Corinthians 2:2) We are not to contact angels unless they contact us. We are not to pray to them. While we can rejoice over the protection they give, we are never permitted to worship them. We are God’s children. They are His servants, nothing more. They are created beings who serve God’s purpose. When the Apostle John was receiving his vision in Revelation, he made a mistake and bowed to the brilliant and radiant angel, who quickly corrected him.And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, “See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” (Revelation 19:10)

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June 10, Who's watching you?

2010-06-10T22:58:00.003-05:00

The Good and Evil Watchers

Do you ever have the feeling that you are being watched? You are. The eyes of the universe are upon you. Jacob’s ladder is a vivid picture of the multitude of angels all around. Daniel had a dream in which he saw “watchers and holy ones.” (Daniel 4: 13-18)

“And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.” (Genesis 28:10-12)

The vilest of the evil ones, Satan, is preoccupied with our thoughts. He sifts through our behavior to find our weaknesses. The Apostle Peter warned us: "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." (I Peter 5:8)

The angels of heaven rejoice when we repent. They are more ready than a 9-1-1 operator for God’s call to assist us.

There is a constant battle on our behalf between them and the evil demons of the air. The good ultimately will win. What a joy it is to know that we are guarded! What a sobering thought to think that we are observed in our meanest actions!How we suddenly find ourselves struggling to break our swearing habits! How dull the lewd entertainments become! We don’t want to offend the heavenly watchers and the holy ones. We don’t want to give the evil watchers a toehold on our beings.

As amazing as this realization may be, it pales by comparison to the recognition that the God of all the Universe is seeing us. We need to pray that God, the Spirit dwelling in us, will make our emotions, our actions, and our thoughts things of value to honor Him.

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June 9, Long Distance

2010-06-09T00:49:00.000-05:00

Here's another incredible story about angelic activity. The point is that our Father God cares about all the details of the lives of His children.

“Bless the LORD, ye His angels, that excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word.” (Psalm 102:20)

Paul Elliott shared some stories about angels. Here is one of them:

My grandfather, grandmother, and Great Aunt Hennie were going to a place in Alabama. They were due at 6:00 for supper. There was a terrible thunderstorm. There was a bridge where they had to cross the river, but the bridge was washed out. So they had to make a detour, and the result was that they arrived at 10:00 that night. “Oh, we’re glad to have you. We’ve got the supper warm, and we’ve been waiting for you.”

“Well, weren’t you concerned about us?”

“No, we got your phone call telling us that the bridge was washed out and you’d be in
around 10:00.”

“What phone call?” My grandmother said.

They said, “The one you made about 6:00.”

And my grandfather said, “We didn’t make a phone call.”

“Oh, yes you did. We heard your voice. You said the bridge had been washed out. We’ll
have to go up the river to another place to cross it. We’ll be in about 10:00.’ ” This was intensely puzzling because they had not been at any place where they could make a phone call.

They were thankful the people had waited supper, and it was nice and warm. The next day they were all very interested. It was so intriguing that they called the phone company to inquire about long distance phone calls coming in. The phone company told the people there had been no long distance phone calls received on that date. The conclusion was that an angel had intervened to reassure the family that everything was all right.

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June 8, Angels Unawares

2010-06-08T09:04:00.003-05:00

Have you had experiences that you could not explain in human terms? Could there have been angels present?

“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” (Hebrews 13:2)

Paul Elliott told me about his grandfather, Rev. Dr. William Marion Elliott, Sr., who on at least two occasions in Colorado City, Texas, awakened in the middle of the night and said to his grandmother, “I have the feeling someone downtown needs me.” He went to the intersection to which he felt called and witnessed to the drunks he found in the gutters there.

Paul said:
My dad was westbound in Eastland, Texas, which is west of Fort Worth. There was only one traffic signal light in town. He pulled up and stopped. The signal light was red and he stopped. When his engine died, he jumped out to push it through the intersection. Since there was angle parking, he started to push. All at once it was easy to push. There was another man pushing and smiling at him. He hopped into the driver’s side to angle it into the parking place.

Then he hopped out to thank the man. There was not another soul on the street. The man had not had time to go into one of the buildings on the other side of the street. There were no other cars anywhere around. It was his opinion that the man was an angel. From the time he had hopped into his seat, parked, and gotten out to thank the man, there was no way the mysterious person could have entered any building across the street or walked in any direction to have disappeared.

(This is one of the stories in the June 8 devotional of DO YOU KNOW HOW GOD LOVES YOU?)

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June 7, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

2010-06-07T21:24:00.003-05:00

“And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom.” (Luke 16:22)

Have you ever been present when someone died?

I am a nurse. Many times I have cared for people who were near death. I have witnessed death. Through the years I became comfortable being at the bedside of a dying person. We struggle to do all we can to make people live as long as possible. If there are do-not-resuscitate directives on the chart, we do all within our power to provide comfort and also to provide treatment for the person with the hopes of helping heal whatever illness the person has. When the person leaves his body behind, the body is suddenly empty. No one is there. It is a great irony though that I have felt as though the room of a dead person was inhabited with people I could not see!

What I know from personal experience is that an angel carries the spirit leaving the body. What I know from the Highest Authority is that an angel (or some angels) come to carry the person away. (Luke 16:22) I've heard a description of an angel from a dying man's lips. My friend Paul Elliott, a retired physician, had a similar experience. These stories are included on this day in DO YOU KNOW HOW GOD LOVES YOU?

The following story about the presence of an angel is one I've shared before:

My husband, Robert Cheatham, (Bobby) spent five years unable to move his body from his chest down. He suffered from a variant of a strange and rare neurological disease, called Guillain Barré Syndrome. With the passage of time, he became fatigued from years of pain in his legs and discouraged from failing to regain his ability to move. In 2001, he experienced a respiratory arrest, and on the morning of September 11, he received a filter to trap blood clots that were collecting in his lungs. From that time on, he wanted to go home to be with his father, who had died the previous year. As the days passed, he became detached. At night during his sleep, he talked about going home to heaven.

I’ll not forget the night Bobby died. He was lying in the hospital, and he was not to be resuscitated. It was about 4:00 a.m. Knowing that his time was short, I had tried to stay awake that night, but I did not succeed. Shortly after 4:00, I was awakened as I realized a wind was whirling in the room near the window, but the window was closed and locked that January night. I felt and heard the wind, which had brought me out of deep sleep. There was a rustling noise. I believe I heard the sound of wings!

For the first time in years, I realized that Bobby was not in pain. His handsome face was at peace. There was no labored breathing because...he was not breathing. I kissed his cheek, which was not yet cold, and I realized he was no longer there. I did not, however, feel alone in the room. There was a sense of serenity and comfort.

There is no way I could ever doubt that God sends His angels to watch over us.

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6, Balaam’s Donkey, III

2010-06-06T21:13:00.002-05:00

“ ‘As I live,’ saith the Lord, ‘every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.’ ” (Romans 14:11)

The prophet Balaam was instructed by Jehovah to stay away from King Balak and to do nothing harmful to the Israelites, but Balaam disobeyed. With God’s reluctant permission, Balaam went to see King Balak. Here is the story quoted from Numbers 22:

And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab. And God’s anger was kindled because he went: and the angel of the LORD stood in the way for an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants were with him; and the ass saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field: and Balaam smote the ass, to turn her into the way.

But the angel of the LORD stood in a path of the vineyards, a wall being on this side, and a wall on that side.

And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she thrust herself unto the wall, and crushed Balaam’s foot against the wall: and he smote her again.

And the angel of the LORD went further, and stood in a narrow place, where was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left.

And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she fell down under Balaam: and Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with a staff.

And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, “What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?”

And Balaam said unto the ass, “Because thou hast mocked me: I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee.”

And the ass said unto Balaam, “Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? Was I ever wont to do so unto thee?”

And he said, “Nay.”

And the angel of the LORD said unto him, “Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? Behold, I went out to withstand thee, because thy way is perverse before me.”
------
The angel became visible to Balaam, who because of the evil and greed in his heart asked the angel to let him continue his journey. The angel allowed Balaam to continue and told him not to say anything to the king that would hurt the Israelites, but remember what Balaam did: he told the king how to conquer Israel not with swords but with beautiful idolatrous women.

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June 5, Balaam’s Donkey, II

2010-06-05T09:30:00.002-05:00

“Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture’ saith the LORD.” (Jeremiah 23:1)

When pastors of the flock of God’s chosen destroy and scatter the sheep, they can be guaranteed to face the wrath of God. Balaam, who was a prophet of the Lord, was commanded to help God’s chosen, but he shirked his job.

In my youth, people found the story of Balaam’s donkey amazing. As a child, I listened wide-eyed when my mother read it to me. Many preachers have avoided the subject of the talking donkey because it is written on one more page of the Holy Bible that we must believe...one more miracle that we must accept at face value. I have heard ministers say they were glad they did not have to believe the word of God in order to do their jobs. I wonder whether they are doing their work the way Balaam did.

As people have become more aware of the supernatural, they are not really surprised by this story. The sad fact is that people are believing pagan lore instead of the supernatural power of God.

Jesus rebuked the church of Pergamus in the book of Revelation. In Pergamus there was a huge altar to the idol of Zeus, the Greek god of thunder. Some people in the church were mixing their worship of Jesus Christ with the worship of Zeus. (Their pagan worship involved fornicating before the idols. To us in what we consider a more sophisticated era, this practice seems incredible; yet it is not unlike the use of pornography in our culture today.)

This idolatry was similar to that going on in Canaan when the Israelites took the Promised Land. Balaam, used by Satan, was influential in leading the people to worship the crude idols of the Moabites and to forsake God.

It is amazing to think that people could ever be so foolish as to worship idols, and it is astonishing that people were worshiping idols not long ago in history. Actually, idol worship has never stopped, and it is thriving in our churches today as pastors lead congregations into the idolatry of the mystical religions . “Innocent”practices not openly associated with idolatry have deep roots in worshiping statues that cannot think or speak.

I have digressed! Back to the story. King Balak said that he had noticed that if Balaam blessed something it was blessed and if he cursed something it was cursed. The kings said, “Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people; for they are too mighty for me: peradventure I shall prevail, that we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land”. (Numbers 22:6)

King Balak sent representatives with “the rewards of divination” in their hands to entice Balaam into arranging with God to curse the children of Israel. The greedy prophet bargained with God and found himself in serious trouble. Tomorrow we’ll finish the story.

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June 4, Balaam’s Donkey, Part I

2010-06-04T11:17:00.004-05:00

“But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.” (Revelation 2:14)

In this verse in Revelation, Jesus rebukes the church at Pergamus for following after the doctrine of Balaam.

What is the doctrine of Balaam? It means placing a stumbling block before the people of the church by engaging in practices that keep them from coming to God. These practices centered on including idol worship in their church, thus denying the sovereignty of Christ. Rather than following the pure word as it had been presented, they allowed evil to enter their church.

The history of Balaam is found in Numbers 22. The children of Israel were close to entering the Promised Land, and they were approaching the area of Moab, which was under the control of King Balak (sometimes spelled Balac.) The hoards of Israelites frightened Balak.

---And Moab was sore afraid of the people, because they were many: and Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel. And Moab said unto the elders of Midian, “Now shall this company lick up all that are round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field.”

---And Balak the son of Zippor was king of the Moabites at that time. He sent messengers therefore unto Balaam the son of Beor to Pethor, which is by the river of the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying, “Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt: behold, they cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against me.” (Numbers 22:3-5)

Balaam was a prophet who communicated with God. Although God clearly told Balaam what he was to do and say, Balaam allowed his greed to turn him away from God while pretending to be a faithful follower of God. He was a man who enjoyed a privileged religious position without giving his heart to the Lord. The leaders of the church at Pergamus, mentioned in Revelation, were like Balaam, and so are many pastors in permissive churches today!

Balak bought Balaam off by giving him mounds of money, by showering him with prestige, and by treating him like royalty. Instead of blessing Israel as God commanded, he went to visit King Balak and show him how to corrupt the hearts of the Israelites. The prophet told the king to send beautiful girls to intermarry with the men of Israel so they would worship false gods.

That’s a summary of what the wicked prophet did. First he bargained with Balak’s men to pay him a good price. Then he bargained with God Himself, who warned him not to do the evil thing that he did anyway. We leave Balaam mounted on his donkey on the way to see King Balak. Tomorrow we’ll talk about the disaster that occurred on the trip. This event is one of the most amazing in the entire Bible.

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June 3, Chariots of Fire

2010-06-03T22:46:00.004-05:00

"Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them." (II Kings 6:16)

What happened at Dotham to the young man, who was a servant of Elisha, reveals the power and love of God in a dynamic way. This incident serves as a potent reminder of the might of the God we serve.

In 893 B.C. Samaria, the northern nation of the kingdom that had been Israel, was at war with Syria. Since things were not going well for Syria, the Syrian King Ben-hadad thought that there was an Israelite spy in his camp. The truth he discovered was that Elisha, who was obviously blessed by God with information, was directing the war from Israel’s side. Elisha was a prophet, who was given the power of the Holy Spirit in order to woo back Israel from the evil they had fallen into. Through the supernatural events allowed in his ministry, Elisha was giving the king of Israel a last chance before the captivity. God sent Elisha to do the work, and He supplied the mighty prophet with a host of angels. When the king of Syria realized that Elisha had special knowledge that made Samaritan spies in his camp unnecessary, he sent Syrian spies to look for the man of God. "See where he is,that I may send and seize him," Ben-hadad said.

The spies did their job. They found Elisha in Dotham. So Ben-hadad sent horses, chariots,and a very big army. They arrived at Dotham under the cover of the night, and they encompassed the city.

The next morning Elisha’s servant awakened early and went outside. He saw a huge army with horses and chariots surrounding Dotham. "Alas, my master! How shall we do?" the servant said. Just imagine the servant standing there ringing his hands in despair.

Notice what Elisha said. This is a powerful verse! Memorize it. Elisha answered, "Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them." (II Kings 6:16)

In our time believers are a minority. We need to think like Elisha. One man with God is a majority against any number of evildoers!

Elisha prayed for his servant: "'LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see.' And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha."(II Kings 6:17)

I pray that God will open our eyes the way He opened those of Elisha’s servant so we can see the supernatural protection that we, as His chosen children, have. Whatever struggles He allows to touch us are trials to make us stronger. When He is ready for us, He will send,the angels to take us to the eternally safe place by His throne.

June 2, The Existence of Angels

2010-06-02T15:41:00.002-05:00

“And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. Then saith he unto me, ‘See thou do it not: for I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren the prophets,and of them which keep the sayings of this book:worship God.’” (Revelation 22:8-9)

Since angels are impressive creatures that we rarely see, they evoke strong feelings in human beings. We know their appearance can cause fear, because throughout the Bible angels tell people, “Fear not.” Because they are beautiful and powerful, people make the mistake of worshiping them. John records such a mistake in Revelation. The angel responded by explaining that he was a fellow servant and reminded him to worship God only instead of himself.

In the era of New Age thinking, people are looking for something awesome to worship other than the true God. One aspect of New Age philosophy is the religion of pantheism – the idea that god is in everything. Our role is to worship the Creator, not the created. Angels are created beings, just as we are. Because of man’s frailty, it is good that we do not see angels more often than we do.

Angels are:
--Created beings
--Spirit beings
--Personal beings
--Innumerable beings
--Glorious beings
--Servant beings

Angels are not:
--God
--Children of God

We human beings are children instead of servants. In heaven we will judge the fallen angels and direct the angels in their work. They are beings of light, and they remind us of divine reality. For everything visible, there is something invisible corresponding to it. We have angels watching over us at all times.

Angels are functional beings with jobs to do. They worship God in spirit and in truth. There are angels who praise God all the time. (Revelation 4) When we worship, we join the angels. They execute God’s will as they minister to the saints (meaning the believers in Christ). Having power over nature, they protect us.

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. (Revelation 4:11)

Thoughts Based on a Sermon by Dr. Wilton Wall

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June 1, Angels in the Bus Station

2010-06-01T22:07:00.002-05:00

“For it is written, ‘He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.’ ” (Luke 4:10-11)

Although I’ve flown several times alone,I was an unseasoned traveler until I was a very mature woman. When I was 59 years old, I had never flown in a commercial plane, and it became necessary for me to travel across the country alone. No matter how I planned my trip, I realized that I would have to change planes or buses in Atlanta, Georgia. Having experience riding buses, I decided to take a bus and change in Atlanta at 1:30 a.m. Surely the bus station would not be crowded that time of the night.

Wrong!

The station was as chaotic as a can of earthworms going fishing at a farm pond. Everybody was wiggling to get ahead in line. Little boys, who should have been at home in bed, were offering to carry luggage. Unsavory characters were moving too close. I finally found my line to catch the bus to Louisiana. I stood there with my suitcase, which must have weighed (with the tools I was carrying after selling my car) at least sixty pounds – I didn’t appreciate suitcase wheels and light packing until that night. I dared not set my suitcase down, even on the floor beside me. An official cut the line in front of me. “The rest of you will have to wait another hour. Your bus was too full.”

A loud young white man, smelling like sour beer, staggered toward me. Cursing, laughing,and moving too close, he said, “I’m catching the bus back to Louisiana.” He intimidated me.

I was praying, “Lord, I’m scared and tired. Please help me. In Jesus’ name.” Seeing the line lengthen behind me as other people were clamoring to catch the bus toward
Louisiana and Dallas, I dared not go sit in the waiting area.

Suddenly a tiny black woman stood in front of me and rebuked the evil in him. A tall
well-built young black man appeared on my left side, and a giant-sized young black man appeared at my right. As they flanked me, they were conversing about playing football with details that comforted me. The man on my right had played at my alma mater in Mississippi and at a community college near my hometown. The one on my left had played football at a Louisiana university not far from where I live. This coincidental information passing over me in their conversation made me relax. One of them told the boisterous,drunken aggressor, “Stand straight, be quiet, and hold this lady’s suitcase for her.”

“Yes sir,” was the answer.

I believe that God told the angel in charge of me to find those three courageous and
concerned people to keep me safe that night.

Have you ever gone through struggles that seemed physically or emotionally impossible
and then wondered how you did it? Wonder no more. Your success was not the result of
your unaided efforts. You are not alone. You had help from the One Who loves you. Your Father in heaven is watching over every move you make and sending His host of helpers one at a time to take care of whatever you need.

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Angels Watching Over Us

2010-05-30T14:35:00.001-05:00

“For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.” (Psalm 91:11-12)

Do you know that God created you in His image? Once you are adopted into His family,you will always be His child. He is working out every situation for His glory and your blessing. Nothing can keep you from His love. Are you aware that the devil tries to destroy you any way he can? The God of grace has sent His powerful angels to
watch every step you take.

Angels are created beings, who have specific jobs. Although they cannot preach the message of God’s salvation, they can assist the believers. Although they are incredibly beautiful, they never want attention called to them. When we carefully study angels,we are forced to look away from them as we see God more clearly than ever before; also, we get a painfully focused look at ourselves in the brilliant light.

Angels are servants who glorify God and do His bidding. With God’s permission and direction, they watch over human beings and deliver messages. Instead of being soft, fat,and doll-like, they are fierce warriors. They are already engaged in an intense war with Satan, who is assisted by fallen angels.Much of what we see, read, and think about angels is erroneous. In countless ways, we trivialize them.

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Since you are already a leader of somebody, do you need to be a great leader?

2010-04-21T22:32:00.003-05:00

Every effective human being is a leader at one point or another in life. I have heard that Nehemiah was one of the greatest leaders ever. I became interested in how he began. What did he do first?

A Prayer of Nehemiah, The Birth of Leadership is a look at his starting point. I'm sharing this with you as a Kindle book on Amazon.com.

Since you are already a leader of somebody, do you need to be a great leader?

Assuming a role of leadership can be challenging. We face all kinds of problems when we step out to lead. The struggles a leader faces are human problems that have not changed over the centuries of history.

Nehemiah, a cupbearer for a Persian king more than 400 years before Christ was born, led a company of his people from Babylon to Jerusalem, where he restored the walls and civil authority. Where his country once existed, he found ruins. His challenge was for him a great one.

This man Nehemiah has been studied and admired through the centuries as an example of a great leader. In his writing he admitted his human frailties and told how he coped.

A Prayer of Nehemiah is an informal conversation about the first prayer Nehemiah wrote in his book. His starting point is surprising but effective.

If you are ready to develop your leadership skills, read this little book. It is not necessary to buy a Kindle to read Kindle books. Simply download the software onto your computer.

...the uttermost part of the earth...(Acts 1:8)

2010-04-21T18:37:00.009-05:00

Do You Know How God Loves You?: Successful Daily Living" is a book of 366 daily devotional readings.

I wrote this book as a Christmas gift for my daughter, who asked me to select her a daily devotional book. What began as a private project has become one way to carry out the Great Commission. I thank God that any people are following it. The reactions have been both encouraging and humbling.

When people tell me they are reading the book I'm moved to tears. People are reading it in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Australia. What a blessing it is to be able to follow Christ's command to go throughout the world and tell people about him!

My dear friend Karlosheldon Cifuentes of Temuco, Chile, reads it each day. He said:

Do you know How God loves you? has been such a great book for me to understand How much God loves me. Every night, when I lay on my bed to read a new devotional, God teaches me something new and shows me also amazing things about him. The most important thing is that everything I have read from this book contains a biblical foundation. That makes it complete interesting. In fact, Do you know how God loves You? has shown me amazingly how to grow in God. It helps every Christian to get closer to God. The book contains material that helps everyone to know more about our almighty God. I really enjoy reading this book, because I can feel God teaching me new stuffs about him.

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An Everyday Miracle

2010-03-18T11:00:00.004-05:00

Exhausted from facing the daily obstacles in my life, unique but not nearly so difficult as others I have faced or that other people face, I went to bed in a tearful frame of mind last night. The barren land of chronic pain, boring chores, and thwarted dreams lay before me.

As I have done many times, I picked up my Bible with an attitude my heavenly Father may not appreciate. Nevertheless, He loves me, one of his weak children. Let me explain. I prayed last night, as I do when I'm struggling, "Lord, this Bible is Your word. I'm going to open it at random and let You show me what I need." This careless approach may be something my Lord finds offensive; yet He speaks to me through all my human flaws.

Last night was no exception. The Lord spoke to me through His word. To my surprise I opened the Bible to the first chapter of Nehemiah, a book not easy to find in the Old Testament. Nehemiah, who as an exile had become the king's cup bearer in a distant country, received a message that the survivors who had returned from exile to Jerusalem were in trouble. They suffered disgrace and danger because the walls of Jerusalem were broken down and the gates had been burned.

When Nehemiah heard how his people suffered, he sat down and wept. After allowing himself to stop and acknowledge the sadness within him, he moved on to the solution that never fails. He prayed. First he expressed his feelings of love and honor for Jehovah, the true God.

Nehemiah prayed, "I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love Him and observe His commandments:" (Nehemiah 1:5)

Then he asked God to open His ears and eyes to the suffering of Nehemiah and the Jewish people. He confessed his sins and accepted responsibility for the sins of all his broken nation. He recalled God's promises and expressed delight in the Lord.

Finally he made his specific request. He prayed for the Lord, his God with great power and strong hands to attend to his specific needs. Nehemiah asked for prosperity and mercy. (To read the entire prayer, refer to Nehemiah, chapter 1)

Never would I reduce the one true God of the universe to a grandfather dispensing wealth simply because we remember to pray to Him. Instead I am stating simply that my Father reminded me He will supply my needs and help me succeed in life's challenges. This He will do for His glory and my security. The broken fences and torn down gates of my life He will help me restore. He provides the miracle of another day to serve Him until He calls me to His house to enjoy His presence forever.

Today I see the joys of opportunity, the challenges of life. I ask, "How, Lord, have You planned to lead me in your service today?"

Ringing the Doorbell and Running

2009-10-31T11:08:00.002-05:00

Have you ever known mischievous children who went through the neighborhood and rang the doorbells or knocked on the doors for a joke? They sneak up to a door and ring or knock one time. Then they run like crazy.

All too often our prayers are like those childish pranks. We don’t expect to gain entrance into the Father’s throne room; so why should we bother to stick around? Perhaps we don’t believe we are worthy of receiving an answer. In human terms we are not worth anything, and Satan delights in reminding us that we are worthless. In God’s terms though, we are His chosen children – the apples of His eye, the recipients of grace freely given. When we approach Him, He does not see our unworthiness. Instead, He sees His beloved Son, Jesus, who shed His blood for us.

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Women's Program at New Hope Baptist Church, Choudrant, LA

2009-05-13T17:29:00.005-05:00

The Women's Group will meet June 10, 2009, 6:30 pm, at New Hope Baptist Church, Choudrant, Louisiana. The program will be about Christ and the Church. Mary Lou Cheatham will be the speaker.

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Revelation's Books & Gifts

2009-05-13T09:31:00.015-05:00

Revelation's, a Small Shop with a Big Inventory
Revelation's Books & Gifts is a quaint little book and gift store on the Sterlington Highway (Highway 2) in Farmerville, Louisiana. It is located on the east side of town. It's loaded with Christian books and well-selected gifts. Before the holidays people buzz in and out of that little shop to select the sweet nectar of beautiful and meaningful gifts that will be remembered by the recipients.

The owner has invited me to sign Do You Know How God Loves You? in Revelation's on June 12, 2009, from 11 am to 1 pm. This big devotional book will make a unique Father's Day gift. Dad, the spiritual leader of the home, will benefit from the thoughts shared here.

Paul Elliott, the editor, gave me his input. This way the book has the perspective of both men and women.

Do You Know How God Loves You? goes beyond light devotionals. There are deep discussions of theology as it has been presented through the ages; practices of Chrisian living such as tithing, witinessing, and praying; and examinations of trends that are leading people away from traditional beliefs. Although the book has over 400 pages, the reader is asked to read an introduction each month and then only a page a day.

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What Is Different about Do You Know How God Loves You?

2009-05-11T20:34:00.002-05:00

You don't have to look very far to find a daily devotional book. You can buy several online or in stores, and you can probably pick up a free one each month in your church.

What am I offering you that is different? People have told me they enjoy the stories about my friends and my family, as well as my own experiences. Others have told me that the thoroughness of the studies present sound theology. Perhaps you can find other books that offer these characteristics.

Several people have described the book as one that is easy to read, one that takes complex thoughts and expresses them in down-to-earth terms. I have written as God led me to so that I can show you how much He cares about you. Still others tell me it has good ideas with a more thorough treatment of each idea than they had expected.

There is something more: accessibility. Do You Know How God Loves You? is an interactive study to help you live successfully every day. Since I published the book five months ago, I have communicated with hundreds of people, who were either old friends I had not heard from in years or new friends who have blessed my life.

Many people I have talked with have deep concerns. I thank God that I am at a stage in my life in which I can take time to talk to people or merely to listen. The great blessing of interacting is the unique quality of the ministry of Do You Know How God Loves You?

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Participating in God's Family

2009-05-09T17:38:00.000-05:00

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.” (Revelation 3:20)

Every holiday when young children give their parents gifts, the same happy drama is played out much to everybody's satisfaction. The preliminary is always the same. In order for the children to buy their parents gifts, the parents must make arrangements for the children to shop.

If it's Mother's Day, Dad discreetly slips away with the little person to buy something special for Mom. It is always special, whether it is a card or a diamond necklace. Even if the child makes the gift or card, a parent must help acquire the supplies. Suppose the child “works” to earn some money. No matter how the money is obtained, the parents usually furnish it. Whatever the child gives, the parent receiving the gift is thrilled to receive it, and the child beams with delight about pleasing the parent.

Suppose the children decide to prepare breakfast for Dad to celebrate Father's Day. Mom will make sure the right groceries are available, she will coordinate the meal, and finally she will make sure the kitchen is cleaned afterward. No matter how hard the children work on the project, a parent is assisting somewhere in the background. Everybody is thrilled with the outcome.

That's the way it is when Jesus graciously stands and knocks at our door. Jesus owns the door and the whole house, the earth beneath it, and the sky above it. The Father God wants us to open the doors of our hearts with joy. God describes Himself as our Father and us as His children. The Holy Spirit is ready and eager to move into every believer's heart. As any parent knows, it is an absolute delight to have your children help you. God in His grace does not rely upon us, but He delights when we participate.

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? (Luke 11:13)

God tenderly loves the children everywhere, and He loves that which is childlike in us. He gives us His salvation and more gifts than we ever realize.

And they brought unto Him also infants, that He would touch them: but when His disciples saw it, they rebuked them.

But Jesus called them unto Him, and said, “Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.

“Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.” (Luke 18:15-17)

Who Am I?

2009-05-09T09:38:00.000-05:00

Scott McKain's book Collapse of Distinction: Stand out and move up while your competition fails (NelsonFree) is one I've been studying. McKain teaches that only the businesses that differentiate themselves from others survive. He is asking me, the reader, to ask myself what makes me stand out from the crowd.

My business is encouraging you to buy my books, I must first let you know who I am. In the context of Do You Know How God Loves You?: Successful Daily Living Here is the answer to the question, “Who am I?” Whatever I am on a deeply personal level is irrelevant. When you look at the book, you want to know why I am qualified to answer such a profound question and to ask you to spend a few minutes every day for a year examining the answer.

First, let me tell you that I am a sinner saved by grace. In my lifetime, even after I was saved by God's grace, I have not always lived a sinless life. Frequently, God has chastised me and brought me back into His will.

Second, let me tell you that I am not a scholar who has attended seminary. My careers have included teaching and nursing. I have diligently studied God's word, received instruction from Bible teachers and pastors, read extensively, and prayed for guidance.

Third, I have a compelling desire to share with you the knowledge that Jesus Christ made the supreme sacrifice for you – that He loves us enough to pay your sin debt and my sin debt. Please refer to January 1 in DDo You Know How God Loves You?: Successful Daily Living

Beyond that desire, I want to share with you a way to walk in the love and guidance of our Lord every day. My business is to place this book in your hands so you can experience my ministry of showing you ways to walk daily in the light of Christ's love. I am an ordinary person with an extraordinary desire to help you realize how much God loves you.

A Real Book

2009-05-08T18:04:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine was astonished when she realized that Do You Know How God Loves You? is a paper book – what she calls a “real book” printed in ink on paper. She had been looking at the videos on You Tube, including the book trailer by Misty Taggart, Do You Know How God Loves You?, “Ten Ways to Listen” , and “Thoughts for Meditation” . Also she had been reading the blogs mentioned on Facebook and following the links there. She is a member of the group, Do You Know How God Loves You? on Facebook.

When she saw the big book with its beautiful cover, she was astonished. BookSurge suggested the price of $26.99 for it because of the amount of material and the size of the book. It is 416 big pages in readable but not large print. The pages are 10 X 7 inches and the book is 1 inch thick. Its shipping weight is 2 pounds.

The plan for using it is to read 1 page per day during individual quiet time. Since there are 366 individual inspirational devotionals,1for each day of the year, the price for each day is less than 7 ½ cents.

In addition to the daily devotionals, there are 2 extra pages of material at the beginning of each month. These studies help the reader to focus on the monthly subject.

Another friend commented on the thorough index, which is 5 pages with double columns of topics that make this book a good topical study.

Some people have told me that they plan to read the book again next year. Others have started at the beginning and have read several days at a time.

As I wrote this book, I prayed, meditated, and studied. It was my aim to give the reader something to bring spiritual comfort while supplying knowledge of God. Whenever possible I included the portions of scripture related to each subject on the pages with the devotionals because I believe that God's holy word will show us what we need to understand about Him.

“So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11)

Goodness and Mercy

2009-05-06T17:56:00.000-05:00

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness. . . .” (Galatians 5:22)

When we follow the Lord, goodness goes before us, follows us, and surrounds us. Having accepted the grace of salvation, we are the children of God. Goodness is a feast at the spiritual table prepared for us. God's good blessings are everywhere we look: in the beauty of the little sparrows at the bird feeder, the red camellias in the snow, the cup of coffee with chicory.

Even in our adversity – especially in our adversity – we see God's goodness! When we ask God to show us the world through His eyes, we see all things in a new way. It becomes easy to thank Him in all circumstances. It is a great irony that we never know how much we need God until the events of life show us. Then our eyes are opened, and we can clearly see His goodness. In our hearts, the Spirit places hope that rises to strengthen our faith. Every day we have challenges that strengthen us like exercise.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. (Psalm 23:6)

The mercy of God is a manifestation of His goodness. Flowing like a stream coming from the sacred fountain, it is provided to us in marvelous ways. There is pardoning mercy. We know that we deserve punishment, but He excused us from the sentence that we have earned. In His goodness, our Father has sought us and offered us redemption through His Son's cleansing sacrifice. He has given us new birth.

Our Father has adopted us into His family of love and given us a new name, Christians. He has placed a banner of love over us, surrounded us with His angels, placed a shield of protection around us, and sent His Spirit to dwell within our hearts. He has in these ways extended our protecting mercy.

He has sustained us with all the good things we need. Not only has He supplied our physical needs; more significantly, He has nourished our spirits with His outflowing of His spiritual wisdom when we have asked for it. When we fall into sinful behavior and repent, He provides His forgiveness. In these ways, He continues to give us His sustaining mercy.

Whatever we have needed, He has provided. He has promised that if we ask within His will, He will give us whatever we ask. He knows what we should have before we know. From the Lord's fountain of goodness flows His supplying mercy.

How do we respond to the Lord's goodness evidenced through His mercy that pardons, protects, sustains, and supplies? We offer praise for who God is and thanks for what He has done. There is an ongoing dialogue between the Creator and His Creation. The Holy Spirit nudges us to share goodness and extend mercy to other people, not because we want it to return to us as in the popular pagan concept of karma, but because we feel a desire to bear fruit.

When our lives here on earth are finished, He will change our residence to His house, where we will live forever in bliss. We are pleased with the goodness and mercy He provides; we are delighted with what He has promised. God is good!

10 Ways to Listen

2009-05-06T10:31:00.000-05:00

With the realization that you will spend eternity with God comes the concept that you can start enjoying a more intimate relationship with Him here and now on earth. Now is the time to become accustomed to spending time in the presence of your God by sitting before the Lord and humbly listening for His voice as you meditate and pray.

Thoughts for Meditation

2009-05-05T10:25:00.000-05:00

The entire month of October in DO YOU KNOW HOW GOD LOVES YOU? is dedicated to growing closer to the Lord. Near the beginning of the October chapter, I have placed this meditative prayer on page 300. We often fail to realize that meditation focused on the one true God is to be practiced. I am sharing here with you so you can meditate with me about the love relatoinship available with the Lord.

Lord, I give myself to You.
Fill me with Your love and power.
Show me how I must serve You and let Your blessing fall on me
So that I can do Your will.

Growing Closer to the Lord

2009-05-05T09:02:00.000-05:00

When Ruth, my sister seven years older than I am, was young she had a baby duck. (This event happened before I was born.) For sport, she was chasing her duck through the yard. Our dad had removed the wooden frame that protected the well so he could repair it. The results were not as bad as they could have been.

How do you see Jesus?

2009-05-04T14:42:00.000-05:00

Do you see Jesus with pity when you contemplate Him at Gethsamane as He lies there on the ground praying to God the Father? There are drops of blood coming from His face as He anticipates being separated from His Father because the other Persons of the Godhead will turn away. Do you see Him being whipped, spat upon, and ridiculed while He stands there and says nothing? Do you see on the cross Jesus going through hideous torture? Or do you see Him ascending into heaven?

You have seen Him at the head of the bed of your dying loved ones, haven't you? And you have felt His comfort when you suffered. In the good, giddy times, the image of Jesus has slipped away. Why is it that we don't see Him except when we are broken? I believe that we don't remember to seek Him in the really easy times in life. During the good times, He seems too far away, as we lose sight of Him.

We shall see Him in heaven as He is! John told us we will see Jesus Christ in His glorified form. His clothing will be a glorious brilliant garment with a golden belt, His hair will be pure and white, His eyes will be as a flaming fire, His feet will look like fine brass. and He will be in the midst of His glory. (Revelation 1:13-15) In Revelation 4 and 5, we read details of the glory of the triune God with more brilliant light emitting from the throne than we can imagine -- a light far brighter than that of the sun, yet painful to our eyes. As we pass through the Bema judgment and when we see Him in the glory that exceeds the power of words, we will not pity Him for His suffering, and He will not comfort us for our pain or chastise us for our foolishness. We will see Him only with love and adoration. He will discard all that is not good in our thoughts and remembered sins.

Beloved . . . we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. (I John 3:2)

He will transform us to be like Him and to enjoy complete fellowship with Him. He will shed His glory on our beings, and we will stand boldly before God's throne.

Send Me!

2009-05-03T21:08:00.000-05:00

“Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?' Then said I, 'Here am I; send me.' ” (Isaiah 6:8)

The seraphim have the responsibility of hovering over the throne of God. We know that God does not need them, and He does not need any of us. He does not need the universe. No matter what He creates or if He allowed all His creation to disappear, He would still be God. And yet the seraphim have the vocation of guarding God's holiness.

We have our jobs too. After the seraph placed a coal on Isaiah's tongue, God asked a rhetorical question. Any question He asks is rhetorical. Since He already knows the answer, He asks to help us get our hearts right. He is running a volunteer army, not a draft board. He knows our answer to every question before we ask; yet in His perfect wisdom, He does not make us feel coerced. After Isaiah was cleansed of unrighteousness, God asked, “Whom shall I send?” Then He went on to ask, “Who will go for us?” (I believe that the word “us” referred to the triune nature of God.)

For the first time in his life, Isaiah was learning what he was supposed to do . . . what his mission in life . . . his purpose . . . his reason to be was. “Here am I: send me!” Can't you just imagine that he shouted those words with reverent enthusiasm. It was not a tentative response. He was a transformed man. His unclean tongue became a spirit-filled, heaven-sent flame.

At Christmastime we love to listen to Handel's Messiah. Most of the words in that magnificent cantata are quoted directly from Isaiah's book, which foretold the events of the coming of the Messiah to the earth. Also he prophesied much about the end times. Few men have been more inspired by the Holy Spirit than Isaiah was.

The mission God gave him on the day of the vision was a strange one. He was to go and tell people about the Lord, but God let him know that most of them would not believe. (6:9) His job was to tell, whereas the Holy Spirit's role is to convict. God told Isaiah to go to the children of Israel. He told us to go into all the world and to preach the gospel to everyone. (Mark 16:15)

Like the seraphim and like Isaiah, we need to have an attitude toward God that says “Only Thou art holy” and “Here am I.” After we have given our hearts to Him, He will commission us to do what He has planned for us in His own way and His own time. Meanwhile, we must pray with bold fervor, “Send me!”

Jesus, Always the Same

2009-05-02T16:33:00.000-05:00

“Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

How have you changed? How has our nation changed? How has the environment changed? But Who never changes?

He is our Prophet, Priest, and King. As our Prophet, He came and spoke to us about His Father, the Holy Spirit, Himself, heaven, all our relationships, and the future. Now He sits on the right hand of His Father and fills the roll of the Great High Priest. One day He will come to earth as the King and will reign forever. His circumstances and His occupation have changed, but the essence of who He is, was, and shall be never changes.

He is the always the same. What never changes about Him? First, let’s consider the term Jesus Christ. Jesus is His name. Derived from the Hebrew name “Joshua” (Y’shua or Je-Hoshua), it means “Jehovah is salvation.” Christ, His title, means “the Anointed One, the Messiah.” True theology never changes. We may learn more from studying, but the truth of Jesus Christ is always the same.

What is the unchanging Jesus Christ like? He is God. To discuss all His characteristics would take years! Jesus is powerful: as a man, strong enough to walk miles every day and drive the money changers from the temple; as God, powerful enough to calm the sea with a word, wither a fig tree with a word, create the entire universe – omnipotent!

Jesus is gentle. He has always had a wholesome, compassionate, and loving relationship with the children, the weak, the lame, the downtrodden, the retarded, the widows, the orphans, and the bereaved. With all His tenderness and sweetness, He is, however, no pushover. His meekness is the essence of His almighty power submitted to the will of His Father so that He could become the sacrificial Lamb to pay for our sins.

Jesus is the God of grace and forgiveness; yet He is intolerant of sin. For some, this statement represents a contradiction; but for Jesus and the believer, there is no problem here. If there is any doubt about these two sides of Jesus Christ’s personality, study the book of James. He receives us through His grace and saves us unto good works. (Ephesians 2:10)

Jesus is the God of Glory. Only He, who has made Himself low and given His life for us, is worthy to open the Lamb’s Book of Life. (Revelation 5) The glorified Jesus is so dazzling that our human eyes are overwhelmed. Like His Father and the Holy Spirit, His glory shines likes a flame. In one word, He is perfection.

Jesus Christ is unique when He is compared to all other gods. Only Jesus has been crucified and resurrected. He is also unique in that becoming a follower is not the result of works. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9) Quoted from Do You Know How God Loves You?: Successful Daily Living

If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9)

The following is a delightful video. At the end there is a request for money, which I did not add.

It Is Well with My Soul

2009-05-01T10:10:00.000-05:00

"It Is Well with My Soul"

The Story Behind the Hymn Quoted from Wikipedia:

"It Is Well with My Soul" is a very influential hymn penned by hymnist Horatio Spafford and composed by Philip Bliss.

This hymn was written after several traumatic events in Spafford’s life. The first was the death of his only son in 1871, shortly followed by the great Chicago Fire which ruined him financially (he had been a successful lawyer). Then in 1873, he had planned to travel to Europe with his family on the S.S. Ville du Havre, but sent the family ahead while he was delayed on business concerning zoning problems following the Great Chicago Fire. While crossing the Atlantic, the ship sank rapidly after a collision with a sailing ship, the Loch Earn, and all four of Spafford's daughters died. His wife Anna survived and sent him the now famous telegram, "Saved alone." Shortly afterwards, as Spafford traveled to meet his grieving wife, he was inspired to write these words as his ship passed near where his daughters had died.

Bliss called his tune Ville du Havre, from the name of the stricken vessel.

The Spaffords later had three more children, one of whom (a son) died in infancy. In 1881 the Spaffords, including baby Bertha and newborn Grace, set sail for Palestine. The Spaffords moved to Jerusalem and helped found a group called the American Colony; its mission was to serve the poor. The colony later became the subject of the Nobel prize winning Jerusalem, by Swedish novelist Selma Lagerlöf.

My Story:

When my husband, Bobby, died after suffering five years of paralysis caused by a variant of Guillain Barre Syndrome, I thought about all the meaningful hymns he used to play in church on his trumpet. Since this was one of my favorites, I decided to ask the congregation to sing it, and Mickey Cloud, the music minister, listed it in the funeral program. Most of the men who were pall bearers at his funeral were musicians. All of them sang beautifully. I wish I had a recording of those men and the congregation, including former music students, singing "It Is Well with My Soul." It was one of the most touching performances of it I've ever heard.

After all we went through, my family and I could truly say, "It Is Well with My Soul" because we understood it was and is well with Bobby Cheatham's soul. Bobby had such a special gift that I believe God was ready to call him home to join in the music of heaven praising the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

But Lord, 'tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul.

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

J. B. Coats

2009-04-30T22:22:00.000-05:00

Summerland, Mississippi, is a little community not far from Hot Coffee and Taylorsville. This is my old stompin' ground. My cousins live at Summerland, and we go to their church there for the Gregg family reunion. My cousins, who can sing like birds, pitched in at our last family reunion and made the good old-old time J. B. Coats songs come alive. They invited me to come up to the front and join in, but I could not have added anything to their lovely music.

Summerland is the place where J. B. Coats used to live. Actually, he lived at Gitano, Mississippi, a tiny dot on the map near Summerland. His claim to fame is based on one wonderful song he wrote. (He wrote others, but this one is the most famous.)

Many musicians have recorded this heartfelt song. Here is the version Elvis Presley did:

Quoting the Biography of J. B. Coats:

J.B. Coats was born on April 6, 1901, in Summerland, Mississippi. He attended the schools of his area and was both a student and lover of music all his life...His formal education was continued with study at Mississippi Southern College and Louisiana State University. He also studied music with Julius Rishing, J.E. and Alvis O. Thomas and T.B. Mosley. When just a lad about fourteen, he began teaching music classes and conducting evangelistic singing. Mr. Coats was a teacher in public schools most of his life...He was the composer of many loved gospel songs with "Where Could I Go" haveing been printed and sung most widely. Others of his outstanding songs are "A Wonderful Place", "My Soul Shall Live On", "I'm Winging My Way Back Home", and "Tomorrow May Mean Goodbye". Many of his songs have been recorded by leading quartets and singers...Mr. Coats was associated with Stamps-Baxter Music Company and a lifetime staff writer for them...He joined the Baptist Church and served more than thirty years as a Deacon before answering the call to the ministry. He died on December 15, 1961.

-----

When Myrtle was a little girl, J. B. Coats used to go to the church she attended, Fellowship Baptist Church, near Taylorsville, Mississippi, and conduct singing schools in the summer. He taught her to sing alto.

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I’ll Tell You Why I’m Not Going!

2009-04-29T15:12:00.000-05:00

“But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen.” (II Peter 3:18)

How many times have you heard someone say, “I’ll tell you why I’m not going to church”? The reasons go like this:

I cannot abide the preacher...the choir director...the deacons. On the front row every Sunday there are a bunch of hypocrites, who lie, steal, and cheat. Sunday they are the biggest Christians you’ll ever see, and Monday morning they are scoundrels. They are keeping me from church. I don’t want a part of God if these are His people. I’ll get more out of going to the lake than sitting in that church with that bunch of sinners calling themselves Christians. I don’t want anybody like that preaching to me or teaching my Sunday school class.

There are a few things to keep in mind. Don’t let anyone steal your joy in the Lord! Realize that these people are growing in grace. Try to see them as God sees them: through the love of Christ. Be sure that God is seeing you through the grace of Christ’s love. If you have not already claimed Christ’s saving grace through His shed blood, do so.

Turn your eyes toward Jesus and away from other people’s faults. Forgive them as you wish people would forgive you for the most stinking thing you have ever done to anybody. When you see mean-spirited persons on the front pew of the church (or even in the choir!) and you cannot help noticing them, thank God that they are in church. How much worse would they be if they were not there? How much has God already worked on them?

Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. (Hebrews 10:24-25)

Remember that they are sinners saved by God’s grace. We are all growing in the Lord, and He hasn’t finished with us yet. Pray for them and thank God for the opportunity. Be especially kind to people who have offended you. Read and reread Matthew 5, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. (Matthew 5:7)

Go to church for encouragement from the Lord and to assemble yourselves with others to encourage them. All those other sinners saved by grace in God’s church need to see you there, where they can receive a hug and a handshake with your smile. They need to hear you say something sweet.

Did you know that there are little children who never receive kind and encouraging words except on Sunday in church? Did you know that there are elderly people who go all week without touching another human being except for the ones they hug in church?

What Is Hopeless When the Lord Almighty Is in Charge?

2009-04-25T22:18:00.000-05:00

“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.” (Romans 15:13)

Walking with the Lord in the brilliant illumination of His word and grace, we cannot avoid experiencing the aura of His glory shining on our path. Having inherited the riches He shares with us, we realize that we need to rely on Him to clean up our activity. We do what He wills, which is to do good. He never leaves us because desertion is not part of His plan and because He loves us too much to discard us. Instead, He repairs, cultures, and guides us. He goes before, beside, and above us. His Spirit abides within us. How could we fail to trust and obey Him?

If we say a situation is hopeless, we dishonor God so much that we are speaking profanity. How could any state of affairs be hopeless when the Lord Almighty is in charge? To say so is to pay homage to the devil. Rather than empower the devil, we must cheerfully and competently bear the burdens placed upon us with the realization that the Lord will reward our willingness to work in His kingdom.

When we are sad, He will comfort us. When we have losses. . . and there will always be losses as long as we are here on earth . . . He will console us. When we cry or frown, He notices. He matches the tasks He gives us to our abilities. Whenever we suffer, He blesses. When we suffer much, He blesses more.

We can never know the extent of His love for us until we sit at His feed and relinquish all. The more we obey and trust Him, the more He will bless. The closer we draw to Him, the closer He will draw to us. Like Martha's sister Mary, we need to spend time at His feet where we can receive His teaching. (Luke 10:38-42) We can spend time there without fear. No matter what we may have thought about God's character, we realize that He is the God of hope, not hopelessness.

With the God of Hope, the Lord of Light, the Prince of Peace, the Lord of Love, we can celebrate the joy of our lives. Hopeless situations? When we walk with God in the light of His love, nothing is hopeless!

Lollie Ready Teaches about the Spirit of Elijah

2009-04-19T16:53:00.001-05:00

Lollie Ready and Mary Lou Cheatham
Lollie Ready, who leads the women's ministry at River of Life Worship Center, Port Vincent, Louisiana, where her husband is pastor, spoke at the Ruth Guilbert Women's conference April 18, 2009, at First Baptist Church, Simsboro, Louisiana.

She brought to life the ministry and annointing of Elijah. Also she discussed the special request of Elisha for a double portion of grace.

I grew up in Mississippi . . . .

2009-04-15T23:45:00.000-05:00

I grew up in Mississippi and now reside in Louisiana. I am the mother of one precious daughter. I have had careers as a teacher and registered nurse. Using the name Jane Riley, I have published a novel, SOLOMON'S PORCH and a story cookbook, FLAVORED WITH LOVE.

I have co-authored a story cookbook, THE COLLARD PATCH, with Paul Elliott. In preparing DO YOU KNOW HOW GOD LOVES YOU? I have benefited from Paul’s editing and spiritual guidance. Uniquely qualified to assist me, he is a devoted follower of Christ, a retired physician, a marketer, and a lover of language.

When my mother, Myrtle, was a little girl, she understood that her family loved her as long as someone was near and giving her constant attention. As a small member of a large bustling family, she would lose sight of her parents’ and sisters’ love occasionally and act out to gain reassurance.

It was time to hoe the crop in the field near the house. The parents, Mary Jane and Bud, left Katie and Rosa with household chores, including preparation of lunch, and also taking care of mischievous Myrtle and baby Idell. Most of the time the parents would be within earshot of their girls.

By midmorning when Katie and Rosa were busy attending to cooking lunch on the wood stove and changing the baby’s diaper, Myrtle, who had been instructed not to go outside unaccompanied, sneaked out to gain some attention. She had a plan. She knew how she could scare her sisters enough that they would play with her. If they loved her, they would have entertained her, she thought.

On the far side of the house, where she was never allowed to go alone, there was a loose board. She had heard it bump in the wind and observed that it sounded exactly like another sound that came from the nearby well. To draw water from the open well with its big hole large enough for her to climb into and fall 100 feet before hitting water, it was necessary to unhook the rope and place the attached bucket into the hole. (The water bucket was a long narrow cylinder with a flap at the bottom.) The rope uncurled from the crank beside the frame to lower the bucket until it made a noise as it hit the water. Then the flap would open to allow water to flow into the bucket. When it filled, the flap would close. I don’t know quite why, but we described that second sound as “the water sinking.” It was the signal to start drawing the water from the well.

Myrtle knew how to get Katie or Rosa to come looking for her. She popped the board on the side of the house and crawled under the house to hide. Katie and Rosa did not hear the noise, but Mary Jane, her mother, hoeing on the end of a row nearby did! Mary Jane yelled, “Myrtle’s done fell in the well. I heard the water sink! Come on, Bud! I shouldn’t have left my babies and gone to the field. Run, Bud. I heard the water sink! Myrtle’s in the well!”

They went running and yelling to the house. Bedlam broke loose. Katie went running out, and Rosa came behind her with baby Idell in her arms. By then Myrtle was too frightened go come out. She knew what would happen to her. Finally Bud called, “Myrtle!”

She could not resist his call. She had so much respect and love for him that she never wanted to disappoint him. “Yes, Papa!” she said from underneath the house, and she crawled out to face her punishment.

(Shared from my new book, DO YOU KNOW HOW GOD LOVES YOU?)

"For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth." (Proverbs 3:12)

We Are the Sheep

2009-04-07T23:45:00.000-05:00

Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.

Serve the LORD with gladness: come before His presence with singing.

Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is He That hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.

For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations. Psalm 100

The Greatest Plea Bargain of All Time

2009-04-06T10:03:00.000-05:00

“And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:7)

Since the heart is the most important part of you, it is no surprise that Satan makes his strongest attacks on it with darts of malice, resentment, anxiety, discord – whatever fruits of carnality that he can use to entice you. Because of his hate for you, he loves to see you live in the flesh.

As the author of confusion, he seeks to destroy your peace by presenting two or three convincing but conflicting ideas at once. These poisonous bombs are programmed to pollute your peace. For example if he can lead you into adultery, dishonesty, pagan worship practices, bulimia, or self-deprecation, he is dancing in the streets.

Remember that what God promises you is stronger than anything the devil can deliver. He will promise you and possibly even deliver power here on earth, but God will have you help Jesus Christ judge the angels when you join Him in His kingdom. “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in this world.” (I John 4:4)

The Father God has relinquished the job of judging to His Son, who will judge all of us. Once you have become a child of God, you have a special relationship with the Judge. The peace of God exists between you and God the Judge. He has made a special arrangement with you before court goes into session.

The Son went to a phony illegal court for You about 2,000 years ago. He was ridiculed, beaten, spat upon, and crowned with thorns. He endured an execution of torture on a Roman cross. Above Him there was a sign saying, “King of the Jews.” He is the King of the Jews, the Ruler of the world, and the Judge of all mankind.

You only plea – that Christ died for you – is the greatest plea bargain of all time. Having had your fine paid by the Judge, You will not have to appear before Him at the Great White Throne, where He will judge sinful human beings according to their works. At the Great White Throne all works that sinners consider good will be discarded like filthy rags. The evil works of evil men will outweigh whatever they thought was good.

Instead of going there, you will appear before Jesus at the Bema judgment, where He will remember that the blood is the payment for your sins. With the peace that passes understanding – the salvation bought by the blood of the Lamb – you will not have to pay the price for your sins. He will give you a crown for the works you have done that were to glorify Him.

Your trial is fixed with the Judge!

Pour Out Your Heart!

2009-04-05T22:59:00.000-05:00

“Our Father...” (Luke 11:2)

Tell your heavenly Father what is on your mind and in your heart. Although He already knows, He wants you to tell Him. Great men in the Bible – such as Job, Abraham, Moses, and Joshua – told God exactly what they thought. He responded, and He blessed them.

When we express ourselves to our heavenly Father (in Jesus’ name as we are instructed) He hears us. If we expect to hear Him, we should give Him honest communication.

There was a woman who was bitter because she could not have a baby. She cried until she was sore. She prayed. All the feelings in her heart she poured out to the Lord. “O Lord of hosts,” she prayed, “if Thou will indeed look on the affliction of Thine handmaid...” (I Samuel 1:11) Her name was Hannah. As she knelt in the temple in Jerusalem, she prayed with her heart. Her lips moved, but no words came out. Eli, the priest, thought she was drunk.

She promised God that if she could be given a son she would give him to the Lord. When she went back home, she and her husband Elkanah tried again. “The Lord remembered her.” (I Samuel 1:19) And she called her son Samuel, who became God’s prophet and the last ruler-judge of Israel. He anointed Israel’s first king, Saul, and Israel’s greatest king, David.

The Bible has some wonderful promises related to prayer such as this one: “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” (Matthew 21:22)

Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms.

Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:

And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. (James 15:13-16)

Nowhere in the Bible is there a verse that forbids us from respectfully pouring our hearts out to our Father as we take a walk, lie in bed, or drive home from work. Instead, God’s word says, “Pray without ceasing.” (I Thessalonians 5:17) As our warm, caring Father. God wants to have a loving, personal relationship with us.

Teaching -- is it really from God?

2009-04-04T11:26:00.000-05:00

How can we know whether teaching is really from God?

All teaching from God honors the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

"No man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and . . . no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. (I Corinthians 12:3)

(Quoted from DO YOU KNOW HOW GOD LOVES YOU?)

2009-03-14T16:07:00.001-05:00

Take a few minutes to relax and enjoy the imagery of this brief video while you listen to a soothing version of "Amazing Grace."

The trailer for DO YOU KNOW HOW GOD LOVES YOU was written and produced by Misty Taggart. A Hollywood screenwriter, she was one of the first women to write for animation such as SCOOBY DOO. Other credits include ANOTHER WORLD, FANTASY ISLAND,and KNOTS LANDING. Misty is an author, speaker, and certified Christian life coach. Her mentor was William Hanna, of Hanna/Barbera fame. She produces exciting video trailers for authors, speakers and event planners. To view more of her extensive repertoire, visit TrailertotheStars.com or youtube.com/booksinmotion.

Misty is a pleasant, efficient professional person, who is a delight to work with. I respect her creativity and high standards.

My portrait for DO YOU KNOW HOW GOD LOVES YOU was taken by Nicholas Hurkes II, a highly sought after photographer based out of Louisiana with over 34 years. He has photographed Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Brooks & Dunn, Alan Jackson, President Reagan, President Bush, Governor Foster, Governor Blanco, Terry Bradshaw, and Reba McIntyre. Having worked on assignments throughout the United States and abroad, he is happy to travel anywhere to document your story with images. For more information visit AmazingShots.net

Jehovah-tsidkenu, the Lord Our Righteousness

2009-03-10T21:09:00.000-05:00

From Do You Know How God Loves You?

“ ‘Behold, the days come,’ saith the LORD, ‘that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is His name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.’ ” (Jeremiah 23:5-6)

A highway running through our town becomes two one-way streets for several blocks. When people go the wrong way, wrecks occur. If the friendly folks and the policemen decided to be nice to strangers and allow them to go up it the wrong way, disasters would result. Drivers must travel the one-way streets the right way. I don’t think the law enforcement officers are arrogant when they require the traffic to flow in one direction.

The majority of church goers in the United States today feel that the idea of having one way to get to heaven is arrogant, uncharitable, and politically incorrect. They have decided that if people are sincere, there must be more than one way. If the people following other paths should terminate their life-journeys at the destination of heaven, where they would have to spend eternity with Jesus, the God they do not know or love, they would, I believe, reject Him there. Why would He want to let uninterested, ungrateful guests into His Father’s house?

Throughout history, human beings have sought to avoid the simplest path to salvation by traveling all kinds of circuitous routes. We human beings have taken raw materials that God has given us and shaped them into objects to worship, we have found exotic alien systems of religions to follow, we have tried to attain righteousness by pretending we are capable of obeying every law of God without loving Him, or we have taken a self-absorbed and self-achieving path to pseudo-righteousness.

All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. (Isaiah 64:6)

No matter what perspectives human beings have, there is only one Way to righteousness. As human beings, we have no true righteousness, except through the one Way...the Lord, our Righteousness, Jehovah-tsidkenu.

Our Father God is kind and loving. His nature is goodness. If there were some other way He could remedy the central problem in the world, if there were some other way He could correct the underlying sin nature of mankind, if there were some other way besides a blood sacrifice for our sins, He would not have sent His beloved Son to earth to live without material possessions and then to suffer from the ridicule of scoffers, not to mention laying down His life in a death of torture for us. If He had another way to save us besides through the blood and sacrificed His Son anyway, He would be a cruel, hateful deity; but we know He is all love, kindness, purity, life, light, and intelligence. There is only one Way.

Jehovah-tsidkenu, the Lord Our Righteousness, is all righteousness and the only provision we have to make us righteous. This name applies to the Father, the Provider; the son, the Giver; and the Holy Spirit, the constant Presence. We have no righteousness of our own except through Jehovah’s righteousness.

Copied from Do You Know How God Loves You? by the author, Mary Lou Cheatham

Holy Kissing

2009-03-09T14:14:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, Ronnie Cathey, our worship leader, suggested we greet each other with a holy kiss. We have a very short time to greet the people around us. I kissed three people on their cheeks. (I realize we have to be careful about this kind of thing. None of the people I kissed were men who belonged to other women.)

How many people go through lonely days without any touch except from a pet or a handshake or hug at church?

Angels in a Hospital Room

2009-03-05T12:40:00.000-06:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6BOfyHS4AI

Angels are servants who glorify God and do whatever He orders. With His permission and direction, they watch over human beings and deliver messages. In this video, I share a personal experience about the presence of angels.

A Hiding Place for Work and Travel

2009-02-26T15:01:00.000-06:00

The following is an excerpt from a new book in progress:

As a child of the Father God – a child bought by the sacrificial blood of Christ, the Lamb – you are blessed with protection. God keeps you safe as you travel. Consider Psalm 121:

1.I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
2.My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.
3.He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
4.Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5.The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.
6.The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
7.The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: He shall preserve thy soul.
8.The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore. (Psalm 121:1-8)

David describes in this Psalm what he would have seen when he was traveling from one place to another. Perhaps David was looking at Mt. Zion and Mt. Moriah. Obviously he did not mean that his strength came from the hills, for the pagans worshiped idols. Instead he is setting up a contrast. Place a question mark at the end of the first line. (Many translations interpret this part as a question.) The answer is the second verse, which shows us that he was looking higher than the hills to the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

Jeremiah 3:23 clarifies the concept:

Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from multitude of mountains; truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.

God spoke the world into being. He who made heaven and earth, night and day, hills and valleys is powerful enough to watch over you always. And He loves you enough to make sure that you don't fall or stumble as you travel along the roads of your life. Whatever you are going through He understands and knows about. He will use His power to comfort you and relieve you. He will protect you.

I do not understand all the ways our God works, for His ways are higher than my ways, but I do know that when you face the most problems in your life – the most sickness, the most financial difficulties, the most misunderstandings among our loved ones, the most danger – the list could go on . . . when you face hardships, your Shepherd is near to lead you to a safe place. He sends His angels to keep you from stumbling or falling.

Trust Him. He is your protector and keeper. Realize that He will watch over you without a need to sleep or turn His head away from you. Realize that He loves you that way. I used to work as a nurse on the night shift. More than once a patient who needed help would ring his bell to call me and make a slightly disoriented apology: “I'm sorry to wake you up.” Some patients did not realize that we were wide awake and busy at the work of watching over them. They forgot that they were wearing monitoring equipment so the staff could watch every beat of their hearts. They did not see us sneaking into their rooms while they slept to make sure they were all right.

Not only does God protect you: He also provides for you a shade. When I think of shade, I visualize the shade of a big live oak tree or a beach umbrella. God's protection is much more than those. His shade is a place of refreshing. The eternal Being who is the infinite Source of all that is good, and the everlasting Substance of life, reaches down to comfort you.

Keep close to Him the way your shadow keeps close to your body. There He will shelter you from the scorching trials of this world. His shadow will be for you like a huge rock in a land that is weary, dry, and thirsty. There He will provide streams of fresh cool water to quench Your thirst. You can sit there in the shade of your God's comfort and delight in the pleasure. (See Isaiah 32:2.) You can be sure that He will provide protection from the roaring lions that are lurking about.

He will protect your right hand; or if you are left handed, he will protect your left hand. What is meant here is that God will protect your working hand. Since He is protecting your working hand, the logical conclusion is that He has work for you to do. Also He will help keep you from temptation. Your feet will not slip off into a way they should not no matter who is trying to take you away from your comfortable place near your God. Although there is evil all around, there is no need to be frightened. Your God will take care of you.

When God spoke the world, everything on earth was in harmony and beauty. After sin came onto the scene, evil, hurt, and ugliness appeared. God will protect you from the evil of sin if you stay in His shade – His umbrella of safety. He will protect you when you go out into the world and when you go home to your house. He will guard your soul. Realize that your soul belongs to Him. He will lead you in love as a child, through your adulthood, and your old age. He will take care of you as you live and as you die. He will preserve you fro all time in heaven. The Holy Spirit will remain with you forever.

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Form some new habits. Now that you have read about God's help for you, make a conscious effort to rely on the divine protection freely given you.

Meditate today on your relationship with your God as your protector.
Pray that God will protect you; in other words, accept graciously what God is giving you.
Let Him know that you trust Him to keep you safe.
Promise Him that you will stay in His safe shade.
Ask God to lead you away from temptation.
When you travel, ask God to keep you safe.
When you go out of your house, ask God to go with you and to send His angels to keep you from stumbling. Although you can assume that He will lead and guide you, talk to Him about it. You, as His child, will need to be reminded.
When you come home, ask God to bless your house and all that live within.
Thank Him.
Love Him.
Trust Him.
Remember that God is protecting your working hand. Ask Him how what work He has for you.

What a blessedness you have as a child of God!

What to Do if You Pray and Your Prayers Aren't Answered

2009-02-24T13:24:00.000-06:00

When something doesn't work, it's time to analyze the process. Let's approach the problem the way journalists gather news. They ask the five “W” questions. This method has worked for centuries. Here are the questions:
1.Who?
2.What?
3.When?
4.Where?
5.Why?

Now let's look at the answers . . .

Who? The answer seems obvious. Who? Me. I'm praying. No, the question is not about who is praying but to Whom you are praying. It is not about you. Real prayer is about the Maker of the universe, the Ruler of the world, your loving Father. Until you realize that God created you for His pleasure and that He loves to hear from you, His precious child, you are not praying. Instead you are thinking to yourself – worrying about your problem.

What? What are you asking? You can ask anything you wish. God will answer what you ask as long as you ask according to His will, through His Son, and in His Spirit. God will answer your prayer according to His will, your need, and your desire.

When? God will hear one little whispered prayer. The Bible speaks out against vain repetition, but it encourages repetition. Your Father pays attention to the fervent prayer of a righteous person. (The only righteousness that any human being has is the purity of Jesus on our behalf.)

Where? As a child of God, you can pray anywhere, but don't make a show. Jesus warned against praying in the street corner to get attention. The reward becomes the attention that men give, not the answer that God gives. No matter where you find a physical location to pray, the relevant answer to this question is the spiritual location: near to the heart of God. Now that Christ has come and paid the ultimate sacrifice, we can walk into the Holy of Holies under the cover of Christ's blood.

Why? Why does God not give you what you ask? If the answer is ”no” or “not now” you may think there was not an answer. Your Father who loves you will give you the good things you need. Sometimes the greatest gift is what you may have been calling unanswered prayer.

Questions

2009-02-23T20:29:00.000-06:00

Since I was ten years old, I have always been a writer. Most of the projects I completed I tore into shreds. When I wrote something that I kept, it was always directed to a specific person. A few years ago, I started writing without concern about who reads it. The result is publishing.

At this website for BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS CHRISTIAN WRITERS CONFERENCE http://www.brmcwc.com/ there is an excellent,very brief blog by Alton Gansky. He calls it "Two Questions." One of them is, "Suppose God told you that your current project would change only one life. Would you write it anyway?" Many authors have responded to this question with thought-provoking answers.

Last week, I started a new project, and I needed to think about that question. Having recently completed DO YOU KNOW HOW GOD LOVES YOU? which was a huge book -- 400 pages with a devotional for each day of the year -- I find myself needing to think about who will read the new book I've just started.

When a friend told me that DO YOU KNOW HOW GOD LOVES YOU? had touched her life, I realized that all the work in that book was not wasted. If DO YOU KNOW . . . did not ever touch another life besides the ones it has already touched, I would still know that God has used my book for His purposes.

As one person said, writing a book always changes one life -- mine.

How Do You Know God Loves You?

2009-02-12T18:58:00.000-06:00

In God's word, the Bible, which is full of love letters to you, He explains how you can know:

-He made you in His image. (Genesis 126-27)
-He made the world beautiful and placed you in it. (Genesis 128-31, Psalm 23:1-6. Look around you!)
-He created you for His pleasure. (Revelation 4:11)
-He watches over you at all times (Psalm 139:1-24)
-He surrounds you with His protecting angels. (Matthew 4:6)
-God the Holy Spirit lives within your heart when you become the child of the Father. (John 14-16)
-God the Father chooses you to be a member of His family and adopts you. (Romans 8:15, Ephesians 1:5)
-He wrote your name in His book before the foundation of the world. (Revelation 17:8)
-He values all you feel so much that He saves your tears in a bottle. (Psalm 56:8)
-He saves your prayers in a bowl and savors them as incense. (Revelation 5:8 and 8:3-5)
-He will share His glory with you when you enter into His presence. (Isaiah 6, Revelation 21:23)
-God the Father loved you so much that He sent His Son Jesus to shed His blood for your sins. (John 3:16)
-He is preparing an eternal home for you. (John 14:1-4)
Jesus, God the Son, came to the earth to die for our sins and waits in heaven for you. (Revelation 1:6)
-Jesus, serving as our High Priest, intercedes for you. (Hebrews 10:12-21)
-The Holy Spirit intercedes for you (Romans 8:26).

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