How Many Times Have You Heard It?

When a loved one hurts our feelings we hate them for their cruelty. Let's be honest, we do! Most of our life we have heard it said:

"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good".
 (Romans 12:21)

Most Christians would give a comeback like "forgive them". Nice, but when the hate crops back up in the near future we see that we have not forgiven them. When someone hurts us it's so difficult to forgive because we love ourselves too much. If they would come to us and say they are sorry it would be so easy to forgive, but in my life, this has been rare. So, how do we overcome a hurt with good?

Probably each Christian would answer differently, but it has been my experience to completely forgive through the Holy Spirit when I examine the other person and what is going on in their life. When I put myself in their shoes, as the old adage goes, then I am overcome with sympathy for that person which leads me to pray for their situation. I overcome evil by praying for them and the hurts that they are going through.

Do You Desire Wise Children?

But Jesus said, “[a]Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”Matthew 19:14".

There is a bazaar lie of Satan spreading like wildfire among Christian parents today.  It's not a new lie, but the more you hear a lie the more effective it becomes. The evil thought in the generation is "restrain the Word of God from little children because they cannot understand it". We see coloring books in Sunday School and cartoon stories told about Jesus. 

The souls of our children are in great danger due to this thought that they cannot understand the Word of God. If you desire wise children then you must feed them the Holy Scriptures! In the Book of Proverbs, there are 775 verses. This would be several years of memorized scripture if a child learned and memorized just one verse a week! Make it your goal as a parent to fill your young children with God's Word.  Your children are on loan to us from God. The greatest downfall is a parent thinking that the Church will teach them.  

Oh, how wise your children will be if this is done! They are not too young to hear and learn the Word of God. Don't let Satan trip you up in this evil lie!

Meat or No

So many today and in the past has fallen to the fable of being a vegetarian. In the Garden of Eden, we can only wonder if they ate animals, but I believe the first animal killed was after they sinned in the Garden and God had to put them out. Then the skin of an animal who was killed by the Lord Himself for the purpose of clothing Adam and Eve. (Genesis 3:21).

After the fall all animals were then under the curse. Buddhists believe that cows are holy. Many vegetarians don't know that this is the teaching of an evil religion!  They worship animals which is against God. India worships cows and monkeys.  People lay dying in the streets as cows strut around them alive and healthy. What an abomination!

The truth is that one beefsteak has the protein that bones need to be strong. It would take 50 cups of Kale to have the same effect and it must be eaten all at once!  If vegetarians would educate themselves, they would find the folly of not killing animals due to cruelty.  Especially if you are a Christian. Our bodies are made up of protein. It builds cells.

Own It

After being crippled with "Jealousy" from early childhood, God recently put someone sent by Him to help me understand why this ugly thing ruled me, making my life as a Christian miserable!  God is loving and never wants to harm us. He is a loving Father who would never give His children a stone when they asked for bread. (Matthew 7:9) So, why would God not deliver me from this ugly thing that I had asked Him to from the day I was born again?  It seemed unfair that the Lord would let me struggle with something that I hated so much.

God gives each one of His children a "Thorn in the Flesh".  The Apostle Paul asked God to remove his three times and God said, "My Grace is Sufficient for You". (2 Corinthians 12:9) What is your thorn?  Mine is "jealousy".  I hope and pray that you will receive understanding through the Holy Spirit what I'm about to say about it. 

A thorn hurts. It is also ugly. It hurts you and other people. We strive effortlessly to get rid of it. And every time we let it use us we feel like we have failed God allowing Satan to beat us over the head furiously with our defeat. How do we get rid of something that controls us? We don't. We embrace it with the thought "Own It"!  We have a fight on our hands! It is not anything outside of us that causes the thorn to rule us, it is inside of us and therefore we cannot blame anyone or anything for our failure to understand that we must fight against it through the Holy Spirit. It drives us to God for help! It is a matter of growing us in His Holiness. "With God All Things Are Possible".( Matthew 19:26) We can apply this verse to our Thorn. 

Our Heavenly Father is growing us in Holiness so we can live with Him in eternity.  "Without Holiness, No Man Shall See the Lord". (Hebrews 12:14)

Eggs and Ham? You Bet!

Go west young man, go west they said.  In 1970 we belonged to the Nazarene Church that my husband grew up in, but first I have to tell you how we got the "call" to go to Colorado Springs to attend their Bible College. There are times when a husband is to listen to his wife (Genesis 21: 12-13) and this was a time when he did, reluctantly. Coming from a Baptist Church I desired God. 😊 So, I'm the one who told him to "go west". It was my desire, not his. The day we left for Colorado in our old '57 Ford we had exactly $70.00 in our pockets.  It was a long way to go from where we lived, about seven hundred miles. "Go on faith they (Our Church) said" and so we did.  About one hundred miles out our radiator began to act up and we had to stop every five miles to put water in it. What does all of this have to do with eggs and ham? You will see 😊 We had also taken the wrong exit so we were now going through the back roads of Kansas.  It took us two days and nights to get to our destination.  We saw the Lord do miracle after miracle in providing for us as we traveled.  Our souls being downcast with the College, we decided to go home in a few short months. Even though my husband was working, we came to a point to where we had no food in the cupboard. We had met a young Christian man who was stationed at Fort Carson and he kept us in eggs and ham the whole four months of our stay. What a miracle to have food all the time!

So, dear husband, the next time your wife tells you to do something so "out there" listen to her and you will see miracles by "going on faith".

Flies

They are disgusting little creatures so what purpose do they serve to mankind?  They eat with their feet.  They love sugar.  Have you ever been in a grocery store where donuts are kept in a case and flies are inside it?  They leave diseases where ever they land.  I do not eat donuts!

One of the diseases they carry is the polio virus.  In the middle 1970s, the plastic trash bag was invented.  What a miracle God gave to someone who had the idea!  It was not the vaccine that stopped Polio, but rather the trash bag!  What a blessing from the Lord.

The forensic field sometimes uses the appearance of blowfly larvae to help determine the time of death in homicide cases. Yes, even the fly has a purpose.  

Three Owls Then There Were Two

In 1977 there was a strange happening in our family.  It was about eight o'clock that evening when it took place.  In our front yard we had a swing set for our children and could be easily seen from the front door.  One owl flew down and sat on top of the swing, then another flew down, and then a third joined them.  We all went to the front door very quietly to watch what they were going to do. This lasted for about fifteen minutes.  They sat quietly without making a sound. 

If you make a study of owls today you will discover that they are a sign of "darkness".  In our culture "darkness" thrives today.  I had to think on this because being a Child of God we do not take these things lightly.  I have never been one to seek out signs from God and I hope and pray that what we saw that night was not a sign of sorrow.  After the time passed one owl flew away and never came back.  Then the two remained there for about a half hour more. 

Silence filled our mouths as we watched to see the others fly away and they did.  You see, we have three children and after all these years those owls are still in my mind.  It would grieve my soul if one of my children would go to hell. Whether it was a sign or not I believe that Jesus will take care of this thing.