The more the Internet connects us together, the easier it is to access these wonderful resources.

Anyway, so I don’t want to lose the confirmation of this message, so I’m jotting it down here to read again and again…

[begin excerpt:]

“All things were created through Him and for Him and in Him all things hold together…” (from Colossians 1:16-17)

Sometimes what you pick up in religious circles is that the job of a Christian is to take Jesus to a land or a people that doesn’t have Him, and then sort of deliver Him. Like, “Where do you want me to put Him?”

But Jesus is HEAVY.

Is witnessing, or sharing your faith, transporting Jesus — *grunt* lift with your legs, not your back — to some place: “Here is our Jesus.”

OR is He already, in some profound way, present in that place with that person, giving life? Is He not holding things together already and your job is simply to NAME that which is already real, true and present.

Is it Jesus over *here* and then all the people that need Him over *here*, or is He some way already present and your job is naming the reality that they are already in but they just haven’t recognized yet? Come on!

… How many of you, when you first met Jesus, coupled with your first encounter with Jesus was this realization that He had in some way been with you the whole time? You woke up to a life that had been sustaining you. It’s like you’d been asleep. And you woke up. You’d been blind and all the sudden, you saw. You had been ignorant, and all the sudden you became aware.

That’s how these first Christians wrote and talked about this Jesus, this power at the center of everything that was made known in its fullness when God raised Him from the dead.

[end excerpt]

– Rob Bell, in his message at Mars Hill, “Uncaging the Lion”

I’ve sensed the reality of this many times, but never quite connected the scripture and the experience this way, so I could put my finger on it. It can be so fundamentally at odds with the almost unmentioned background idea I’ve picked up in church, that people are lost and completely disconnected in all ways with God — and then at some specific point in time, they encounter the gospel and God shows up in their lives.

That somehow, God wasn’t involved before that. That every bit of “truth” they picked up before then is somehow tainted or not really true because they weren’t connected with God “back then”. That somehow, their spiritual gifts couldn’t have been in operation “back then”. That somehow, they couldn’t have been hearing from God or listened to His Spirit “back then”.

Erp! Wrong!

I like this Rob Bell guy. Heh.

With that bit of backdrop to give you some context for where I’m at mentally / spiritually, here’s tonight’s ponderance. . . I was washing the dishes and imagining a conversation with my husband.

“What do you want to do tonight, honey?”

“I don’t know. What do YOU want to do?”

“No, sweetie, I want to bless you — what would you like?”

“Well, I want to bless you, too — what are YOU in the mood for?”

And yes, sometimes it goes on… and on… like those two crows in the old Disney cartoons. “I dunno, whataYOUwannado?”

From a Specific Example Comes General Revelation

I thought about the things I usually like to do with him: watch movies, play computer games, watch good preaching, etc. I wondered why I often seem to shy away from sitting down specifically to “just talk”. I realized that in some part, I probably don’t like doing this because 1) I often walk away from our conversation with a list of to-do items and 2) I often walk away from these conversations with a list of things to repent of and/or change in my life or daily routine.  *sigh*

So I thought, what if I knew our conversation would be pleasant and free of any to-do items or emotionally trying discussions? Would I still avoid “just talking”? Is this an area where I need to apply more “be” vs. “do”? Are there people who enjoy just “being” with each other? Not even talking, just “being”?

Weird concept. Just sitting there, doing NOTHING?

But… but… but… could that be right?

Am I missing something vital because of my typical Type-A approach?

Is Being Really About Doing Nothing?

So I thought about my ideal vacation or recreational activities. Aren’t any of them “just being”? Well, I could play in the water and swim for hours and just enjoy the sensations of “being” in the water. I could sit in the forest and “just be” by a tree or watching the ants do their jobs for days. I love going for walks.

And yet… when I really examined each of these things, there wasn’t really any “just being” that was totally free from “doing”. Swimming and walking are stress relieving exercise. Walking especially I find enjoyable because of how well it facilitates my prayer time and hearing from the Lord. I have most of my best conversation with Him while walking or driving.

I love to sit in the forest, but again, it’s because I hear from Him — and often I record what I hear in writing or art. I never picture myself in the forest without picturing a notebook or sketchbook in my hand (or lately, a camera).

Then it dawned on me: For me to just “be” is to “be” who I am: an artist, a writer, someone who loves to hear from God and express what I see and hear. I am happiest “just being” when I am doing what I am made to do.

So What’s the Difference?

So then, the difference between the “be” vs. “do” is that to do is so focused on the doing, not enjoying who you are or what you’re doing, but driving and pushing towards some end result as if that is the desired goal. To do places the reward or satisfaction in the realm of the temporal and makes the joy dependent on the performance of the task. That’s the negative of the”do” idea.

To be is to be in the “eternal now”, living the present moment to the fullest and enjoying the being (and doing of being). The reward is immediate and yet never limited to time and space. If your satisfaction is centered in being who you are in Him, then you are ALWAYS satisfied, whatever you’re doing — now and forever. That’s the key to “just being”.

If this is true, then it’s not about doing nothing so much as it is about being who you are and enjoying everything you do by being in the moment. So whatever I do with my husband, be myself and enjoy him being himself. Don’t focus on the TV show or the computer game — or even the good preaching. Be joyous and creative and loving and attentive and curious and eager and enthusiastic in everything.

Don’t “just be” but totally be (who I am in Christ) in whatever I do.

Hmm.

And now I’m only left with one niggling question: is this a cop out, or is this revelation?

Across all this cross-section of viewpoints, however, there is also a mixed approach to exactly how this Christianity is to be lived out. Whether you look at it as a code, a way, or even a relationship, what EXACTLY you do day to day depends mostly on what you believe about the Word of God, the Bible.

An unremarkable life, a useless religion

You may go all your life and never have a serious crisis that shakes you up and causes you to examine your faith more closely. You may go all your life from crisis to crisis and decide to keep your religion, because it’s comforting to believe that somehow you’ll get through the hard times and somehow it all has greater meaning.

But as far as I’m concerned, that’s a totally USELESS religion.

What’s your breaking point?

I’ve had my share of life turning points. Not as dramatic as some, but enough to place me face to face with this question. What do I believe? And does it even matter?

I faced the allure of suicide. I faced my desire for homosexual relationships. I faced the escape route of divorce. I faced the misery of overwhelmingly negative emotions. I faced the roller coaster of the manic-depressive cycle. I faced the temptation of self-validation through ever-greater achievements. I’m facing health issues that have gone on as long as I can remember. And some that have started more recently. There’s more. Plenty more.

But it’s not the list of problems that matters. They could be ANYTHING.

Anything can be an excuse to quit. Quit your job, quit your schooling, quit a friendship, quit a church, quit a marriage, quit your life. Everybody is different, so everyone has a different natural response to these challenges. Some are naturally resistant to destructive choices. Others naturally tend to spiral downhill fast. Some hang on with great apparent courage and stubbornness while harboring a deep flaw that causes them to snap into utter failure at some undetermined point along the way.

The reasons for failure are endless. And they’re different for each person.

The universal moment of truth

For any problem we face, whether internal or external, there is one universal moment of truth. This applies to EVERYONE in EVERY situation.

The one thing that determines your destiny (immediate and eternal) is your CHOICE of RESPONSE.

Why do some people come through a WWII concentration camp with their faith in God and their joy in life intact? Why do some snap into utter mental and emotional breakdown at a casual comment? Even on a purely human level, this boils down to a choice. What will you believe?

The reason a straw can “break the camel’s back” in a relationship is because of a continued choice to believe the negative. At some point, these accumulated choices have created such a fortress of the negative within the soul of a person that it may be something very small that is “the last straw”. Something that they were able to handle 10 times over in the past, but which is devastating after enough negative choices have established a stronghold inside them.

We have an an enemy

You may never have thought much about it, but we have a real, living enemy. The devil is called the adversary or “Satan”, because he is the enemy. Jesus called him a thief (John 10:10) and said that his ONLY purpose in life is to steal, kill and destroy. He never stops looking for someone he can devour (1 Peter 5:8).

There are spirits all around us that are constantly trying to influence us toward the negative. And what is this negative? The primary message is, “God is a liar.” First they try to keep people in ignorance. Best if folks never even know the truth. But once we’ve found the truth, there’s only one way they can snare us.

They try to convince Christians to believe that whatever God said isn’t true. They do this best when circumstances seem difficult, when our defenses are down, when we’re already questioning what God said. Then they swoop in with, “Believe THIS instead…”

We have a Savior and King

But before you start freaking out that there’s this evil force against you, let’s make something clear.

“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.” (1 John 4:4)

May the eyes of your mind be opened so you can see the exceeding greatness of His power towards us — the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. (Ephesians 1:18-21) Doesn’t that sound like it pretty much covers it ALL?

And where are we in all this?

“And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” (Ephesians 1:22-23)

We are IN HIM, we are His body, and therefore all things that are under HIS feet are under OUR feet! Praise God!

We have effective weapons for both attack and defense

There are a lot of places we can look for encouragement in facing our challenges. Every person’s personality is different. Some are best encouraged by warm and fuzzy assurances of God’s love. Others like to hear that God is always with them. That’s all good stuff, I agree. I’ve always been motivated by a good military analogy, though.

“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.” (2 Corinthians 10:3-6)

What God gives us is enough. It is MORE than enough.

“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.” (2 Corinthians 2:14)

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long;We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”(Psalm 44:22) Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39)

We have, ultimately, a choice

Circumstances and emotions and pressures and conflicting thoughts can flood into our lives and overwhelm us. It can seem confusing and difficult to see the way through.

Allow this thought to penetrate your mind, and it will help: There is only ONE question.

Who … will … you … believe?

Will you believe the recorded Word of God, the Bible? The Holy Spirit will help you understand what it is saying to you for your specific situation. God never leaves us without the answers we need, if we just ask Him in faith (see James 1).

Or, will you believe what the world tells you? Will you soften the instructions of God’s Word? Yield to the pressure of the pain, or the pull of the temptation? There is an infinite list of things you could do besides believe and walk in the way God tells you. But none of those other options will take you on that straight, narrow, upward path of heavenly, eternal life.

You get the choice. It really is that black and white. Believe God, and choose life. Believe anything else, and you are choosing death. It might be a small step in that direction, or the final leap that ends your life on this earth.

Change your breaking point

There’s one thing that stands in the way of every attack of the enemy, every pull of temptation, every pressure of my life’s circumstances. That one thing is the Word of God.

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

How awesome is that? Jesus is the Word made flesh. Not just the living example of God’s Word and ways, but truly somehow everything in the Word of God was and is in Jesus Himself. When I call on Jesus, I am calling on God’s Word. When I say the Word of God and stand on its truth, I am trusting in Jesus. When I read the Word of God and gain wisdom or understanding, I am communicating with Jesus! Too cool!

“As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the LORD is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.” (Psalm 18:30)

“Every word of God proves true. He defends all who come to him for protection.” (Isaiah 30:5 NLT)

The whole of Psalm 119 is like a love song to God’s Word and all the truth of His ways. It’s full of inspiration about how the Word of God teaches, helps, strengthens and makes better the human soul and condition. For further inspiration, open the Book itself!

When I’m tempted to lose patience with my children, it is the word of God that reminds me, “she opens her mouth with wisdom and the law of kindness is on her tongue” (Proverbs 31:26)

When I’m in emotional pain and tired of being neglected or stomped on or unappreciated, I declare the Word of God in prayer, “YOU are my shield and my exceeding great reward. I will see the goodness of God in the land of the living!” (Genesis 15:1, Psalm 27:13)

Either this God is real and He’s awesome and He’s MORE THAN ENOUGH for me — or He’s worth nothing at all and no God of mine.

And to put it more respectfully and orthodoxically (is that a word?), either I am fully committed and totally surrendered, or I am a hypocrite, a lawless liar, and no child of His.

Choose to trust!

I choose to believe God. He is awesome. I am His and He is mine. No circumstance — whether pain or pleasure — will move me away from my CHOICE to follow 100% of what He’s shown me in His Word.

It’s not always easy. Sometimes it’s downright impossible. But my God does the impossible, and with Him I can do the impossible, too (Matthew 17:20, 19:26; Mark 10:27; Luke 1:37, 18:27). I choose to trust His work in me, to yield to His direction and trust that the reward is as good as He says it is.

Like Horton the elephant, our God meant what He said and said what He meant — and He is faithful one hundred percent. (Yes, I was watching “Horton Hears a Who” the other day, sorry…)

“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will be faithful to perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6)

“For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:14)

May you be encouraged and blessed — and give God your ALL!

It’s amazing how much you can milk out of just a few words, by taking the time to slow down and really consider them. I like his use of classical Christian art along with the study. Works well as a visual aid for pondering what it was like for Jesus, even though I’m always keenly aware that it’s an artist’s interpretation and imagination more than “real”.

Good stuff.

Really enjoying this one lately: God of This City by Bluetree, a band from Belfast, Ireland.

They were in Pattaya, Thailand, a place called the capital of the world’s sex trade, and this song came out. Chris Tomlin heard it later and realized that it was a call to go out over EVERY city, and not only put it on his album, Hello Love, but it’s been a part of the Passion world tour, as well. May the voice and words of the Lord’s people call forth His will from heaven to earth!

And may we see GREATER THINGS in our lives, in our families, in our churches, in our cities and in our nations!

By God’s grace and my choice to submit to His lead, this has resulted in an overall improvement in my quality of life. It has strengthened my faith and my walk with God, I am growing in my relationship with my husband, and I see the world differently. I have now, I think, a more complete view and understanding of God’s character, His purposes and what life is all about.

Recently God has been pulling back layers of my onion, especially in my relationship with my husband and family. This peeling process seems to recur every six months or so, going deeper and deeper.Yes, it’s painful. Yes, it’s freeing. And the results are good, to the extent that I cooperate with the Lord’s work on my heart.

During this same time period, I have witnessed several friends and family members experiencing similar spiritual pruning. To my surprise, it’s even harder to watch than it is to experience for myself! When I read the following passage last week, I knew it touched on the centerpoint of this process God is working in each of His people, any time we’ll let him: Letting Love Rule. Our hearts, our homes, our churches, our friendships.

When Love Rules the Home

The environment of the Christian home, like that of the church, should be one of love, acceptance and forgiveness. People need these three things to come to wholeness and they need them in the home just as much as in the church.

We can have these three ingredients in full measure in our homes only as Jesus Christ is Lord both of the husband and the wife. I am not saying that to put down those who live in divided homes. I don’t want anyone to despair. But just as a home is not complete with only a father or mother, neither can love be complete with only one parent being obedient to God.

My purpose is to advocate what God intended the home to be — a place where both husband and wife are under the total Lordship of Jesus Christ. I must warn you that if you are compromising your own commitment to the Lord, if you aren’t in the process of becoming what He wants you to be personally, you are heading your home toward disaster.

People come to us with incredible marriage and family disasters. They come from every walk of life, high income and low income and everything in between. Usually the disaster is a result of husband or wife or both not being under the Lordship of Christ. If Jesus isn’t your Lord, you must begin there to bring love, acceptance and forgiveness into your home.

“God has poured out His love [agape] into our hearts.” How? “By the Holy Spirit” (see Romans 5:5). If Jesus Christ is not your Lord, if the Holy Spirit is not filling your life, you do not have agape love. You can fake it. You can have friendship and you can have emotional love, but just as you can’t buy apples at an auto parts store you can’t get agape anywhere but from God. He is the exclusive source.

Agape love must become the mark of our homes. “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25). There it is again, agape joined with giving. Agape is always a giving love.

Do you know what an ideal marriage is? It is husband and wife each giving to the other all of the time. If both are giving, obviously both are getting as well, but the dynamic is completely different. I know a relationship is in trouble whenever a husband or wife says to me, “I am not getting anything out of this marriage.” Apparently his or her partner is not giving anywhere near 100 percent, and husband or wife doesn’t have an attitude of giving either, but is focusing on getting.

Love gives and it gives with the idea of meeting the other person’s needs, emotional and spiritual as well as physical. One of the greatest love gifts you can give your partner in marriage is total, unqualified acceptance. You see, although I speak of love, acceptance and forgiveness as three distinct things, they are closely related.

It comes as something of a shock to most of us when we discover we didn’t marry a saint after all. We married a sinner like ourselves. Acceptance means we give each other enough elbow room to live. Acceptance conveys the idea: “You don’t have to be my ideal; I love you.” This is real unqualified acceptance of you as you now are and does not imply, “I will accept you in spite of your obvious faults.” That idea is egotistical.

Too often we act so as to communicate: “You are not exactly what I would like you to be.” We compare here, suggest there, manipulate elsewhere, con a little, play little reward games. Why? We are not the Lord, and no one has to answer to us, including our spouses.

If you have a very capable husband or wife, beware of getting into competition. I was intimidated by my wife’s grade point average when we were in college ages ago. Barbara was always disciplined, got her assignments in on time, made A’s on the tests. I was always playing Ping-Pong or softball or basketball, drinking Cokes and running around. I could never figure out why she had a better GPA than I did. I was intimidated by her grades and I was intimidated by her discipline.

Years later, she launched her, “Touch of Beauty” radio broadcasts. Way down inside of me there lurked a subtle fear that she would do better than I. Sure enough, that which I feared came upon me. Men would come up to me and say, “We listen to your wife every day on the radio.” Competition.

God helped me realize that we are not in competition, that we can release one another to be what God wants each of us to be. Now, as I am writing this book, her first book, How to Raise Good Kids, is already out and doing very well. I can honestly say that I am not threatened by that fact. I accept her strengths now. They don’t intimidate me any longer. I also accept her weaknesses and she does the same for me.

Accept your spouse; that is the greatest gift you can ever give him or her. If you have trouble with this, perhaps it is because at some subtle point you have not been able to accept yourself. In turn, that may be because you are not thoroughly convinced that God accepts you.

I lived a lot of my life trying to get God to accept me. I didn’t like me very well. I was too short. My ears where too big. I wasn’t put together the way I thought best.

I was crossing the street in Seattle one day when the Lord spoke to me clearly, “Jerry, why don’t you quit trying to be a Christian? You are one. You are accepted in the Beloved.” I did not even know that last phrase was in the Bible.

Three days later, I was lying on my bed in the room I was renting near the college. I opened my Bible to Ephesians, chapter 1, and began reading. When I reached the sixth verse, it jumped on me like a thing alive — I am “accepted in the beloved” (KJV).

That experience totally changed my life. Suddenly I wasn’t trying to get God to like me anymore. He had liked me all the time. As I began to accept myself because God accepted me, I found I was better able to accept other people. So you see, acceptance, like love, depends on the right relationship with God which includes exercising the faith to believe that God loves and accepts us in Christ.

Along with love and acceptance, forgiveness is one of the most healing elements in a home or church. Now, forgiveness involves forgetting. We have not truly forgiven someone until that matter is dismissed by us not to be retained anymore.

People tend to retain grievances, and although they “forgive” they keep things in a little bag for instant recall as needed. Introduce that system into a home and it becomes absolutely devastating. One cannot live with a person who is collecting his mistakes in a little bundle and bringing them up periodically just to show him he is not nearly as smart as he thinks, because remember when…

“There we go again; I thought that was settled.”

“Well, it is, but…”

When people live together in the same home, their weaknesses are going to show. They just will. A strong relationship is not one in which the people have no weaknesses but it is one in which each knows how to handle in love the other’s failings.

In a marriage, people so often get into little ego struggles. A minor issue — leaving a rake in the yard, being late for an appointment, not putting gas in the car — becomes a major issue. Then it becomes a matter of, “You’re always doing something stupid or irresponsible.” We generalize from a small issue into a great accusation and we are caught in an ego struggle.

The classic example is the huge, enormous problem that arises when he squeezes the toothpaste tube in the middle and she rolls it from the end. All they would need to do is buy two tubes of toothpaste, let him squeeze all he wants and her roll to her heart’s content. That would take care of it.

Such conflicts can be funny to hear about but they hurt when you are caught in one. Multiply the hurt by many repetitions and many other small issues and you come up with two people who love each other but have lost each other. They no longer communicate.

Many such couples find each other only in their children. That is their one meeting point. When those children are gone, the husband and wife separate or spend the rest of their lives together but alienated.

Couples can build an environment in which they will not lose each other if they will let love and acceptance rule the home. And if they will learn a few things about forgiveness. “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Colossians 3:13). Has Christ forgiven you? Then that is your basis for forgiving others. As a Christian, you have no excuse to be unforgiving in any relationship, particularly in your home. Forgive.

I must emphasize the importance of forgiveness not just as an event but as an environment.

“I forgave him for that thing.”

Not good enough. You must forgive him for everything, all the time. People need the security of knowing they can blow it and still be loved and totally forgiven with nothing held over their heads. I am pleading for an environment of forgiveness in our homes, where people don’t have to wonder or endure some painful interlude before they can be forgiven.

That is the kind of home I need. Not that I intend to offend. I am not asking for license. I am not asking to be a tyrant and still be loved. I don’t want to be unreasonable. I don’t want to be hard to live with. Not many men do, though it may look that way.

Sometimes I meet a person who seems to want to be hard to live with. I think, He must be trying to be ornery, because he is certainly succeeding. When I get close to him I find a frustrated person who can’t understand why there is trouble and why people have a hard time with him. I don’t know any woman who tries to be contentious either. I know several who have succeeded, but none who planned it that way.

We need to build an environment in which husbands and wives understand that their mates are not holding grudges against them, not remembering the mistakes of the past. I need to know that when my wife looks at me she’s not screening me through all the foolish things I’ve done over the past 15 years. And I’ve done a few, but I honestly think she has forgotten most of them. At least she has convinced me she has, and that is just as good. She doesn’t throw the past up to me and I try not to throw the past up to her.

Forgiveness is liberating. If you don’t have an environment of forgiveness you can’t live freely. You can only defend yourself constantly. What chance do you have then? None whatever, because you are going to fail sometimes regardless.

I’ve seen husbands and wives live together as though they were vultures. He’s perched over here and she’s perched over there and they meet in an arena between. Each is just waiting for the other to make a mistake so he or she can lash out. Have you learned yet that people tend to live up to your expectations of them? Just perch there watching for your husband or wife to blow it again and you probably won’t have to wait too long.

“My husband is never on time for anything,” a woman said to me. “And he is always in a bad mood. He has never been able to handle money either.” She went down a list of about 15 things her husband “always” or “never” did.

When she finished I said, “You undoubtedly have the most consistent husband I’ve ever heard of. You have been married for 24 years and this guy has made totally wrong decisions all that time — quite a record.”

You get the point and so did she. What are you looking for? You will find it. If you are looking for a mistake you will find it, but a forgiving spirit does not look for mistakes. When the mistake is there anyhow, it forgives. This paves the way for continued living. Unforgiveness becomes a gate across your road of life. It drops down and you can’t get through to go on. Only forgiveness can open that gate.

If you want a good home, build an environment that grows good homes. How do you have a good garden? Pull out the weeds and plant good seeds, not bad seeds. If you are planting seeds of rebellion, jealousy, suspicion, unforgiveness and criticism, what are you going to grow? You will reap what you sow.

To have a home in which love reigns, sow seeds of love. How do you do that? By being a loving person. You can be a loving person when Jesus Christ is Lord of your life and the Holy Spirit is shedding abroad the love of God in your heart.

What I’m saying about husbands and wives applies to parents and children as well. I know parents who are unforgiving toward their children. They remember every mistake that kid ever made. Parents whose children are grown and married tell me about the mistakes those kids made when they were still at home. Forgive your children. Forgive that teenager.

“But he hurt me.”

Forgive it and forget it. Let the wound heal.

I’d like to inject into your home these three things — love, acceptance and forgiveness — but I can’t. All I can do is point you to Jesus. He loves you, accepts you and forgives you. As you are exposed to His love, you can begin to love. As you realize His aceptance, you can begin to accept others. As you experience His forgiveness, you can forgive.

How many of your past sins does God remember? None whatever. There is no record of you in heaven as a sinner. Insofar as God is concerned, your life began clean when Jesus became your Lord. Bless God. That’s strong. That’s forgiveness. Put it to work in your home.

– Love, Acceptance & Forgiveness by Jerry Cook (with Stanley C. Baldwin)

Wow, that was long. But totally worth it. I want to remember this always, and continue following God’s lead in establishing this atmosphere in my home. I can already see His hand leading me in this direction, though I hadn’t ever seen it all written out in one place exactly like this before.

Total acceptance. This is something God has been placing on my heart lately. Understanding that acceptance of a person is not approval or endorsement of sin. Love, acceptance and forgiveness should always be fully loaded and ready to fire out the cannon of my spiritual weaponry.

How is judging, criticizing or being hurt going to help anything? It won’t! But the love of God is a powerful healing force, and it is “the goodness of God” that “leads you to repentance” (Romans 2:4). May God’s goodness — His grace, His undeserved favor, be upon you today!

One of the darkest hours that I’ve ever spend in my life came right after my wife and I first started living our life of faith.

When I surrendered my life to Jesus, He became a light unto me. He became the One I wanted to live for. From that day, I determined that I would serve Him for the rest of my life, but then the darkness came. I was just beginning to really live for God. I was on fire, and it seemed that nothing could shake my faith in God.

We went to a church service to hear Brother Kenneth Copeland. Our children were just babies and we had put them in the nursery. During the service a woman came running to us with our youngest daughter in her arms. Our daughter had blood running out the end of her fingers. I didn’t know what had happened.

The woman came up to the front of the auditorium and brought our baby to us. Of course, when the people saw all that blood and heard the baby screaming, fear erupted in the place. I held the baby in my arms and turned and looked at Brother Copeland. I was not only about to find out what I believed, but I was also about to find out what he believed. It’s one thing to preach faith; however, it’s another thing to live it.

Satan was trying to steal my faith. His motive is always to discourage us and cause us to turn away from God. That day it looked as if darkness had returned to my life, but God proved that He was a light unto me.

With the baby in my arms, I turned to look at Brother Copeland and he stopped preaching his message and walked off the platform and came to where we were standing and laid his hands on my daughter’s fingers. He said, “In the name of Jesus, I command the blood to stop and the pain to cease.” The bleeding stopped instantly.

She closed her eyes and then laid her head on my shoulder and went to sleep. I had blood all over me. Brother Copeland walked back up to the platform and said, “Let’s get back into the Word of God.” He just prayed the prayer of faith and went back to preaching.

I took my daughter into the men’s restroom to wash the blood off of her. I still didn’t know what had happened to her. When I started washing the blood off, I then discovered she had cut two of her fingers off behind the first joint. Now, I don’t know how it affects you when one of your children is injured, but darkness tried to come over me and fear tried to rise up in me.

Satan began bombarding my mind, telling me she’d never be normal. He told me that her fingers would always be deformed. However, I remembered the Word of God, and I knew it was Satan who was trying to steal it from me. I remembered the book of Deuteronomy, which talks about the blessings of Abraham. I knew that all of those blessings belonged to me. The Word of God says, “Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body…” (Deut. 28:4). So I declared, “God, this little baby is the fruit of my body, and You said she would be blessed. In the name of Jesus, I believe You will restore my baby’s fingers.”

My faith began to rise, and fear began to leave. I then heard a knock on the door. I went to the door, and it was the nursery attendant. She said, “Brother Jerry, what do I do with these?” She had in her hands two little fingertips that she’d found on the floor in the nursery. She handed them to me, and now I held in the palm of my hand two little fingertips with nails on them that had been cut off my daughter’s fingers.

Once again, darkness tried to come in. Fear started arising again. But I continued to confess the Word of God.

We were advised to take our child to the hospital to get her fingers properly dressed. When we got to the hospital, the nurses were amazed that the baby was not crying with pain. Realizing the seriousness of the situation, they got us an appointment with one of the top plastic surgeons in the state of Louisiana.

When he examined her fingers, he said, “I’m sorry. There’s nothing we can do. It got the nail root. It got part of the bone. Those fingers will never be normal. They’ll always be short.”

I said, “Sir, you don’t understand. My God will restore my baby’s fingers.”

He said, “No, no, son, you don’t understand. It’s medically impossible.”

I said, “Sir, that’s where my God specializes — when things get impossible.” I told him, “Sir, please understand me. I’m not against you. I’m not belittling you, and I’m not trying to be sarcastic. I appreciate your dedication to the medical field. I appreciate all the years that you’ve given to studying how to help people and to save lives, and I respect you greatly, but I’m not basing my faith on what you say. I’m basing my faith on what God said, and He says that all things are possible to him who believes.”

However, this doctor didn’t understand, and he was totally convinced that it was impossible. He said, “All we can do is take a skin graft. We’ll take a piece of skin from her hip and cover her fingers. They’ll never be normal. They’ll never have nails.”

We knew that we couldn’t leave them exposed, so I said, “You go ahead and do the skin graft. God will do the rest.”

He said, “I don’t want you to get your hopes up.”

He then went over to my wife and said, “Your husband doesn’t seem to understand.”

She said, “No, sir, you don’t understand. Our God will restore our baby’s fingers.”

He took the skin graft, bandaged up her fingers, and had her stay in the hospital that night.

Brother Copeland had one more service so I went to hear him preach. When you find yourself in a dark situation, that’s not the time to run from the Word. That’s the time to run to the Word. Why? Because faith comes when you do.

I drove back to that church that night and allowed Brother Copeland to feed my faith with the Word of God. After the service, I went back to the hospital and preached everything to Carolyn that Brother Copeland had preached to me. Now, we both would be operating on the same level of faith. We were trusting God for a miracle.

The next day we took our baby home. Once we were home, we absolutely surrounded ourselves with the Word of God. We didn’t turn the television set on. We didn’t pick up a newspaper. We didn’t hang around doubters. We protected our spirit diligently by staying in the Word of God.

We consumed the Word of God through faith-building tapes and books. When we spoke to each other, we talked about the Word. If people came into our house talking unbelief, they either had to sit down and be quiet or leave.

After three weeks, we took our baby back to the hospital, and the doctor removed the bandages. Much to his surprise, the fingers were growing back. He said, “This is impossible. I can tell there is some growth taking place.” He then said, “But they’ll never have nails.”

I said, “No, sir. My God will restore my baby’s fingers.”

He said, “Impossible! Bring her back in three weeks.”

We kept on reading materials that stirred our faith. We continued to pray. We were not willing to have our dream stolen. As far as we were concerned, our daughter was healed completely.

After another three weeks, we took her to the doctor again. He cut the bandages off and screamed, “My God!” We looked and saw that God had restored fingers and nails and they were the right length!

We experience a tremendous victory when God restored our daughter’s fingers. Since then, there have been many times when the devil has said, “Jerry, this is impossible or that’s impossible.” When he does, I just go to my daughter and say, “Terri, could I borrow your fingers for a moment? The devil’s trying to tell me that we’re facing another impossibility.” Then I’ll just say, “Satan, look at this. Years ago, you told me that this was impossible, but look what God did. God took an impossible situation and turned it around, and if He did it once then He can do it again.”

When darkness returns, you have to remind the adversary of the victories that you have already seen. Declare them out loud. Tell the devil that the God you service is a God of victory and triumph.

– If Satan Can’t Steal Your Dreams, He Can’t Control Your Destiny by Jerry Savelle (pp. 100-107)

What I noticed in this story

While this is a great example of God’s miraculous intervention and inspiring in so many ways, there is ONE THING that stands out to me right now. THIS is the message that God is telling me in the “now”, and I believe it’s for me and for my friends who may read this journal.

Notice what Jerry and Carolyn did between the declaration of faith and the uncovering of the completely restored fingers: THEY GUARDED THEIR HEARTS. They were DILIGENT. They took it SERIOUSLY. They got EXTREME in their focus.

They did NOT continue “life as normal” while “saying positive things” about how God was going to heal their baby’s fingers.

THEY GOT SERIOUS. Nothing was allowed to distract them or put bad seed in their hearts. No TV. No worldly news. No friends or family members who would speak words of doubt and unbelief.

Do you need some extreme change in your life?

“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” — Matthew 11:12

What’s happening in your life? Are you under attack in some area? Are you tired of getting beat up by some habitual sin? Are you finished with failure? Ready to see the impossible happen?

I’m ready to get violent about achieving the dreams God has placed on my heart. I’ve been gradually getting more forceful about it for a few years now, and I see the growth gaining momentum.

The will of God will be done in my life, and I will not settle for anything less.

How about you?

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” — Jesus, in John 10:10 (emphasis mine)

And as I watched, I smiled. And then… well, and then I cried.

Watch the video…

Why did I cry? I’m not certain. But I think it has something to do with the music. A LOT to do with the music. And then, the imagery of so many countries. So many peoples I long to touch, to reach with the good news of Jesus Christ.

And there they are, laughing and dancing with this dude who just followed a so-simple and seemingly silly dream and ended up Net-famous.

I don’t really want to be famous. But I do want to make a difference.

I want to reach MY dream, and the people I dream of dancing with. Or writing with. Or drawing with. Or making movies with.

Oh, God, YES!

The thing is, I didn’t really “go” anywhere. I just didn’t have anything to say here. Now I find myself with things I’d like to share. Have you ever had that urge? It’s not exactly that there’s no one to talk to. But if I told one friend, I’d want to tell several. And while certain friends seem like the right audience for certain news, others may not be interested or be available to listen to my ramblings on certain topics.

Isn’t it lovely that now there are blogs? You can come and read as you please. I can come and write as I please. And we’re both happy.

To teach the scriptures? To explain how to live the Christian life? To counsel the people? To lead? To inspire? To deliver messages from the Lord? To pray?

Well, perhaps a little of all that comes into play, but none of it became the singular focus of the great preachers –nor of my pastor himself. His conclusion:

The preacher’s job is to bring people into the presence of God.

This morning, as he said it, I realized that’s my job, too. I could see it in my mind’s eye: through the course of a story, I bring people into moments where the Holy Spirit can speak to their hearts. Again and again, here and there, with different moments for different readers or watchers or hearers, the voice of God will speak. The heart of God will touch theirs. The call of God will echo in their ears.

Come to Me, you who are weary and heavy-laden.

Come to Me, you who are thirsty.

Come to Me, you who long for love and meaning.

Come to Me, you broken-hearted, you desperate, you sick and dying.

And I shall give you rest. And healing. And wholeness. And I’ll pour out My love upon you, filling you until every human sense you have is tingling, ringing, pulsing, savoring the manifestations of it. Until you laugh and sing and dance with the overflow of it.

Let the glory of the Lord fill the earth! Let His love call ring out through the atmosphere. Let His beauty shine through in every line of my art, every word of my stories, through the faces of the actors and actresses that play the parts, and through the unsaid words that will speak to hearts in silent plea: Come to Me.

Yeah, I wanna be a part of that!