I GOT UP ONE MORNING THIS WEEK AND WHAT PLAYED OVER AND OVER IN MY HEAD WAS THE PHRASE, "WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A CHRISTIAN?"  SO AS I DRANK MY "CUP OF JOE," I THOUGHT ABOUT IT.  THESE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS THAT JUST CAME POURING OUT OF MY SPIRIT:

DOES IT MEAN THAT WE LET PEOPLE WALK ALL OVER US?

DOES IT MEAN THAT WE HAVE TO BE SEEN AND NOT HEARD AS WOMEN?

DOES IT MEAN THAT I THINK I AM BETTER THAN YOU?

DOES IT MEAN THAT I CAN SMILE TO YOUR FACE AND THEN TALK ABOUT YOU BEHIND YOUR BACK?

DOES WEALTH, OR FOR THAT MATTER POVERTY, MAKE YOU ANY BETTER OR WORSE THAN ANYONE ELSE WHO IS TRYING TO FOLLOW JESUS?

SO, I THEN THOUGHT ABOUT WHAT IT MEANT FOR ME TO BE A CHRISTIAN AND THESE ARE A FEW OF THE THINGS I CAME UP WITH:

I TRY TO FOLLOW JESUS, NOT A RELIGION, AND BRING HIM INTO EVERY SITUATION I CAN.

I ALWAYS TRY TO HELP THE ELDERLY.  YEARS AGO, I HAD AN ELDERLY WOMAN WHO ASKED ME TO ALWAYS CHECK HER FACE FOR ANYTHING UNSIGHTLY THAT MAY BE ON IT. SHE SAID SHE NEVER WANTED TO BE OUT IN PUBLIC AND HAVE SOMEONE SEE A REALLY LONG HAIR OR A BLEMISH AND HAVE THEM BE GROSSED OUT.  SHE COMMENTED THAT SHE DIDN'T SEE WELL ANYMORE AND SHE WOULD BE HUMILIATED IF SHE THOUGHT SOMEONE WAS SNEERING AT HER.  I HAVE SINCE MADE A POINT TO DO THAT FOR EVERY WOMAN OR MAN GOD PLACES IN MY PATH.  GROWING OLD DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU ARE READY TO BE THROWN AWAY OR MADE FUN OF.  EVEN AS THE OUTSIDE OF YOUR BODIES GROW OLDER, OUR SPIRITS (THAT WILL LIVE ON FOREVER) WON'T GROW OLDER...THEY STILL FEEL YOUNG.  I KNOW I AM GOING TO "REAP WHAT I SOW" SO MAYBE SOMEDAY SOMEONE WILL KEEP ME FROM BEING EMBARRASSED BY SOMETHING ON ME THAT WOULD SEEM UNPLEASANT TO OTHERS.

I RECALL ONE SUNDAY IN CHURCH A FELLOW BROTHER HAD BECOME TOO OLD TO PARTICIPATE IN THE CHOIR, WHICH HE DEARLY LOVED (TODAY HE IS IN HEAVEN).  WE WERE SINGING A HYMN AND HE WAS SITTING IN THE PEW AND NO ONE WAS PAYING ANY ATTENTION TO THE FACT THAT HE WASN'T HOLDING A HYMNAL AND SINGING.  I GOT UP FROM MY SEAT AND KNELT IN THE AISLE (THERE WERE NO OTHER SEATS) AND HELD UP A HYMNAL FOR HIM SO HE COULD SING.  ANOTHER TIME WHEN HE WAS ON HIS DEATHBED, I SUGGESTED TO THE CHOIR THAT THEY GO TO HIS HOUSE AND HOLD CHOIR PRACTICE, AS THIS MAN HAD DEDICATED HIS VOICE TO THAT SAME CHOIR FOR YEARS.  YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN THE LOOK ON THAT MAN'S FACE AS THE CHOIR APPEARED AT HIS HOUSE FOR PRACTICE!

FOR ME, BEING A CHRISTIAN MEANS HELPING THE HUNGRY, THE NEEDY, THE DOWNTRODDEN IN ANY WAY I CAN.  I HAVE BEEN IN CHURCHES WHERE SOME OF THE NEEDIEST PEOPLE AREN'T EVEN BEING HELPED.  WHAT IS GOING ON?  WE NEED TO START WITHIN OUR OWN CONGREGATIONS, MAKING A POINT TO FIND OUT WHO NEEDS OUR HELP.  IF WE SAY WE FOLLOW JESUS AND DON'T, WELL...THANK GOD I AM NOT THE JUDGE.

I FEEL THESE ARE A FEW OF THE THINGS ONE DOES WHEN THEY SAY THEY FOLLOW JESUS...JUST A FEW.  THE BOTTOM LINE IS "TO DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU."  I WANT TO LEAVE A LEGACY THAT MAKES PEOPLE SAY I HAD A LOT OF CHRIST-LIKE QUALITIES.  THINK ABOUT THE PEOPLE YOU HAVE KNOWN WHO HAVE DIED.  WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT THEM?  WHAT LEGACY DID THEY LEAVE?

I CHALLENGE YOU THIS WEEK TO THINK ABOUT WHAT BEING A CHRISTIAN MEANS TO YOU.  YOU KNOW JESUS WAS CLEAR AND HE WAS VERY SIMPLE WHEN HE SAID, "FOLLOW ME."

HAVE A GOOD WEEK...

MOLLY

What the Holy Spirit is putting on my heart this week is that we really don’t believe that God is really real.  If we did, we wouldn’t be acting as if there was so much defeat in our lives and within ourselves…

Is He or is He not really real?

I have learned only by trial and error (more error than not) to pray God into every situation of my life…not only the BIG stuff.  After all the years of defeat, He left me no option, but I look and see that it was for my benefit that He did it this way for me.

I use to take drugs, pills being my drug of choice.  One night I was watching Carman, who is a Gospel singer, on TBN.  At one point, he looked right into the camera and said, “I don’t know who you are, but you need to stop taking all those prescriptions and stop smoking those cigarettes.”  Well, I got flushed all over and I knew, I just knew, that God was talking to me.  That very night I stepped out in faith and stopped taking all my prescription medications (Parnate, Buspar, Premerin and Synthroid);  I also stopped smoking.  For me to stop smoking was a big deal…I loved, and I mean loved, cigarettes but I knew God was talking to me.  There were only two times after that  I craved a cigarette.  When this happened, I spoke this over myself:  “I take authority over that urge to smoke in the name of Jesus.  Get out of here, Satan.”  If in doubt, cast out!  That is a  good rule of thumb for anyone.

You see, I was bound and hell-bent to get the victory in my life and do whatever it took to get it.  It has been eight and a half years since I have taken any drugs or smoked a cigarette.  This is because I believed that I was being delivered a Word from Heaven by a living Savior through Carman.

I hadn’t grown up knowing anything much about God.  I took the Word I received that night by Carman on faith…I just believed.  I can tell you that I am glad I did.  What a mess would have been before me if I hadn’t.

If you will step out in faith to believe that God is real just one time, you will never have to wonder, “Is He live or is He fake?”  For most of us it will be a shot in the dark, but I can tell you from experience that to believe is to receive.  You'll never have to wonder "Is it live or is it Memorex?

Molly

·        He Ain’t Heavy…He’s My Brother

This last week I was shopping at the Dollar Tree.  I love the Dollar Tree.  There were times that if it hadn’t been for that place, I don’t know what I would have done.  Being a good steward of what Gad has given me keeps me going back there.  I have often thought of writing them a note to tell them “thank you” for helping me when I was trying to help pick myself up in life.  I want to thank them now for still being there and being one of my favorite places to go and shop.  I know people who would never darken the doors of a Dollar Tree but they really do not know what they would be  missing.  This brings me to the point of this week’s BLOG.

As I was standing in the checkout line, a couple came up behind me.  The circle of people I have been around most of my life would have shunned this couple because of the way they “looked.”  As I have become “born again,” I have changed in most areas of my life, especially in my thinking in regard to how people look, although sometimes I still slip.  She and he were tattooed and had earrings in places I know had to hurt them when these areas were pierced.  Her hair was coal black, but what grabbed me was how really cute she looked in the haircut she had.  I thought whether or not I should tell her how cute she looked.   It was then I knew the Lord wanted me to reach out to them.  There is a scripture in the Bible that says, “ Judge not, lest ye be judged.”  Well, once again, the Lord was trying to remind me of that.

I turned around and said, “I love your haircut.”  She was very pleased and smiled and said thank you.  What a sweet girl. Who was I  to judge the way she looked?  Yet, most of the so-called Christians in the churches and circles I have been around in my life  would have dismissed her as being way out, funky, or even worse.

This ministry challenges you to “reach out and touch” someone this week with the true LOVE of Jesus.  Over and over again in the Word we are taught to give honor to the lowly and to humble ourselves.  We are no better than anyone else and we need to realize this.  WE need to get beyond the way people look to us if it is not our norm.

“He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother”  should be the order of the day if we say we follow Christ, no matter what someone looks like, no matter  what their color or anything else. We are in danger of treading upon God’s territory when we think we are better than others.  We all need the LOVE of Jesus Christ, especially in the days in which we live.

Forgive as YOU have been forgiven and above all (in my mind), LOVE as you have been loved.

Remember:  Red, yellow, black and white…and might I add, spiked, tattooed and pierced,  they are all precious in HIS sight.

Summer is here.  I live where it is beautiful.  Things are indeed beautiful on the outside but on the inside, for a lot of people, it isn’t so pretty.  It is time for us to stop and look at the things we don’t want to look at so no matter where we are, we can be happy.  Flowers are beautiful, as well, but if you are miserable inside, it will have a determination on how you perceive those flowers.  Your smeller might feel broken right now but all is not lost.

Having been truly saved by Grace was a BIGGY for me.  But, that was not the end-all.  I didn’t know it then but that was the beginning.  What I have learned and what I have been taught was not taught to me by anyone.  It was taught to me by the Holy Spirit.

What about you?  Are you just saved or have you experienced the fullness of the Godhead within you?  If you haven’t, it is time for you to do an overhaul in your heart.  There is a baptism in the Holy Spirit that will give you the power you need to accomplish God’s will for your life.  It will open up to you the more of God.

It is my job to prod you to make you think about these issues so you too can walk in the fullness of the Cross on earth.  There is a marked difference in being saved and then being baptized in the Holy Spirit.

I have seen people who are saved, yet they fall away because the “going gets tough.”  They don’t have the staying power.  They tried it, they liked it, but then Satan came along and stopped them.

Where are you with all of this today?  It is time to check yourself.  Life, as we have known it, is over.  You won’t make it just warming a pew week after week after week anymore.  Satan is stepping up his game and we have got to mature into the Body of Christ.  It is time that we grow up.

When I was young, at family gatherings we had a big table for the adults and a little table for the children. God is not going to do all of it for you.  This is a proactive walk with Christ, not religion. 

The best is before you if you want it but it is time to grow up.  We are losing our children all over this county by heinous crimes.  People are on more medications than ever before in our history.  There are malls for medical practices.  It is like we can shop for each illness we have.  What is going on?  We have more available to us as a child of God but, mind you, being a child of God does not mean we are children.

It is time to check yourself.  If you don’t have the power that the Bible talks about, then it is time for a summer overhaul.  Stop “doing” church and get with the greatest teacher that ever lived and find out what needs to be replaced, tuned up, changed , traded up or traded in.  But, one thing is certain:  It is time to grow up so we can take this nation back for Christ.  We need to take back what Satan has stolen from us…that is IF you are a child of God.

Don’t  just give yourself a check up this summer;  give yourself an overhaul.  Put on the mind of Christ.

1Corinthians 13:11

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

You are invited to the BIG table....are you coming?

Molly

Where you are might seem dark right now…very dark.  But, if you won’t give up and you won’t stop, you will make it through to the other side.  I know because I have made it to the other side and I have been called by God to help pull you through your tunnel.

In the small town where I grew up, there was a one lane tunnel.  In order to get where you were going, you had to drive through this tunnel; there was no other choice.  You couldn’t see through to the other side and you had no idea what was approaching from the other end.  As you would enter, it would be very dark and there was a sign posted at the entrance that said, “Honk as you go through.”  In this way, you could give notice to another vehicle that might be coming from the other entrance.  It would be kind of scary for a little while, but then you could see the light peeking through and you would take a deep breath and relax…safe on the other side.

A lot of us are going through tunnels right now.  I have had the most horrific week, as far as battling in the spiritual realm, I have ever had.  I have always considered myself tougher than any two men…But, I have learned not to quit, not to lay around feeling sorry for myself, and not to let depression overtake me.  I have learned and been conditioned to rise and fight back no matter what, even when my body says “no.”  In this way, the devil can longer win in my life.  Every time God had something good for me, the devil stopped me. He was able to do this through instilling in me fear, anger, rage, and disappointment.  He had me thinking I was not good enough for anything or anyone.  On and on it would go.  I have learned to pick myself up, dust myself off and start again.

We need to know one of the biggest tactics Satan uses against us is anything negative.  He does not want you to have God’s best for your life.  No one, and I mean no one, deserves to be blessed less than me.  I feel like I am the biggest sinner there is.  With saying all that, I have risen again to declare the works of the Father through my life.  I have been called to be completely transparent with my life so you can know that if God can forgive me, He will forgive you.  If He has brought me through the tunnel that Satan tried to stop me in, He can bring you through your tunnel…no matter what it is.

Dr. Phil and Oprah are fine but I am telling you that they cannot help you learn to get up the next day and face the hell that will be coming at you, no matter in what form it comes; but Jesus Christ can.  A big thing I have learned is that if someone’s personal life is not good, why would you want to emulate (be like) them?  Follow someone who is walking in victory not just talking victory.  God will never let you down…ever.  Learn God.

The tunnel won’t last forever but if you quit and run the other way out of fear, you will lose.  I know it hurts.  I know you don’t like it but when those factors are there, it is a sign to you that God has something for you on the other side.  You might be scared in the middle, but honk your way through and you will make it to the other side.  If I can overcome all of this hell, then you can too.

Is that you honking?

Molly