I gathered together today with a group of pastors where I heard the most amazing Jesus story. One of the guys shared about how his wife has been going through stomach issues for over five months. It took the doctors months to discover what was wrong and then it’s taken additional time for the treatment to reverse the damage cause by the little bugger that caused the problem.
During this time, she lost pounds she couldn’t afford to lose. Worst of all, she wasn’t able to leave the house, which meant attending service or having guests over was out of the question. After finally getting healthy enough to attend service, she told how she held onto her faith in a good God even when He wasn’t answering her prayers. There wasn’t a dry eye in the place! People could relate big time to her situation.
Lives were immensely touched that day. Then I remembered what I wrote yesterday, “Let the Spirit, using your current challenges, enlarge your view of your God. As you do, you’ll experience the kind of victory that others will see and ask about.”
Then I thought, Should I have been praying for God to heal her when in fact it was through her painful struggle that not only did her view of God enlarge, but so did those in her church family? I know it sounds harsh, but doesn’t it often take struggles coming from this world to get us to begin to think rightly about our God? (See Hebrews 12:1-11.)
I’m not saying to ask the Lord to pile on the pain! I guess what I’m suggesting, though, is that we stop and ask, “Lord, how do You want me to enter the battle for this for request?” Might He say, “Pray for them to have the strength to endure it so their view of Me will enlarge”? Would you be willing to enter the battle in this way, even though it goes against every fiber in your soul? Prayer is indeed not for wimps.
S“E”t Free Nowww

I have a t-shirt that I love to wear that has white straggly haired, blue sunglassed Albert Einstein surfing a good sized wave, only with no board! Underneath this picture is the word, “Imagine.”
It’s asking us to get out of our boxes and think bigger, even the impossible. Jesus said, “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” We all have challenges. We all want to experience victory and taste the goodness and greatness of God. The solution starts with the size of our God.
There is a worship song with the lyrics, “How great is our God – sing with me/How great is our God – and all will see/How great, how great is our God.” How great is your God? Victory over your challenges can only come if you know your God to be more powerful than your challenges. Is He?
Let the Spirit, using your current challenges, enlarge your view of your God. As you do, you’ll experience the kind of victory that others will see and ask about.
S“E”t Free Nowww

Surprise, you’re adopted. “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, ‘Abba Father.’” (Romans 8:15)
I’ve learned a couple of things from talking with those who’ve been adopted. One, they wanted to know why their parents didn’t want them. And two, they worked hard to make sure their adoptive parents would keep them.
This makes what Paul wrote in the above passage so insightful. We don’t have to fear our Father giving us back to the orphanage called this world if we fail. We are safe and secure in the warmth of His love.
He loved us when we couldn’t love Him and couldn’t do anything right. In fact, He wanted us as His children so badly that He sent His own Son to get us from that orphanage. Jesus did and does all the work to make and keep us God’s children. It’s on Him, not us!
Fight your enemy’s lies that make you feel unwanted or have to be God’s workhorse with this truth – you’re adopted! Relax and enjoy your relationship with your Father! You don’t have to earn something that you already have – love and security.
“S”et Free Nowww

You’re touched by God’s love every moment of every day and I’m sure you don’t even notice it. How? God told Adam that if he ever decided to turn his back on God by doing his own thing, Adam would die.
What happened when Adam and Eve finally did it? They experienced something we experience all day long – God’s mercy and grace. Yes, Adam and Eve experienced spiritual death – a disconnection with God. What they deserved, however, was physical death at that time as well.
God out of His great love expressed His mercy by sacrificing an animal to cover up their mistake and His grace by giving them extra time to freely choose to follow Him once again. He does the same for you and me – every second of the day.
How many times a day do we turn our backs on God? More often than we care to recognize. In Leviticus 4, the Israelites needed a make a sin or purifying sacrifice, which was for the sins they didn’t even know they were doing! We are responsible for every action – intentional or not – here on earth and with God.
Our choices deserve both physical and spiritual death the moment we do them. Yet Jesus’ sacrifice not only took care of our intentional sin, but our unintentional turning away as well. We experience God’s love every second whether we realize it or not through His mercy and grace. This should cause us to be extremely thankful as it enables us to stop punishing ourselves and to start walking with Him again.
And since He gives you room to make healthier choices today through His grace and mercy, why not show His love to those around you by extending to them that same grace and mercy? As you do, not only will you be supernaturally touched today, but so will those around you!
“S”et Free Noww“W”

“He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never went to college. He never visited a big city. He never traveled more than two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He did none of the things usually associated with greatness. He had no credentials but himself…
“Nineteen centuries have come and gone, all the armies that have ever marched, all the navies that have ever sailed, all the parliaments that have ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned put together, have not affected the life of mankind on earth as powerfully as that one solitary life.”
Dr. James Allan, the author of this poem called “One Solitary Life”, was talking about Jesus. One surrendered life in the hands of the Living God can make one tremendous impact. Who knows that the “good work” He has for you to do today will affect lives for eternity? Let’s follow the lead of the one solitary life that changed history forever.
“S”et Free Nowww