The Sword of Forgiveness

November 14, 2017 by Leave a Comment

 

Dear Father,

Teach me daily to deal with offenses, in a way that will cause growth in my life and also in a way that will be pleasing to You.

Dear Child,

Offenses will always be dealt with, one way or another. Whether you think they are left hanging and undealt with or not.

They will either be a trap and stunt growth

                           OR

They will be an opportunity to freedom and maturity.

Your response to the offense IS your dealing with the offense.

Even if you don’t respond outwardly, your response will have a powerful effect on the heart.

Whether stored in the heart!

                    OR

Set free and forgiven!

Offenses not forgiven will be stored in the heart and will hold you captive as chains that tighten with each unforgiven offense.

                                                   Thus saith Papa

Luke 17:1-4  Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offenses will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.

Mat 24:10  And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

Since we are warned that offenses will increase in the last days in the above chapter, we need to mature spiritually and learn to biblically respond to these offenses.

Down in the basement of our hearts, just like junk in our physical basement, is junk that is cluttering our emotional life. Experiences from the past that we’d rather shut away in our sub-conscience rather than bring them to the light and deal with them, because most of them are hoarded there because of our choice not to forgive. We are keeping ourselves prisoners to those experiences but a decluttered emotional life brings freedom. When we decide to declutter our hearts  and forgive we are saying “ I no longer give you the power to control who I am, how I think or how I’ll behave”.

An absence of forgiveness is equivalent to staying behind prison bars of buried hurt. 

 “FORGIVENESS is a MIGHTY SWORD that will cut you free”….Broadway Show- Jane Eyre

CHALLENGE: What cords of past hurts and offenses are entangled in your emotional being, robbing your spiritual life of the breathe of freedom? Set yourself free today from those cords of the past with the SWORD of FORGIVENESS. Name them one by one as you sever them from your being that you might be able to walk to freedom from the past!

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Are You Homesick ?

November 13, 2017 by Leave a Comment

As I visited a Scottish pub restaurant “Braveheart” to enjoy a plate of fish and chips. The whole atmosphere with the Scottish Standard and St. Andrew’s flag hanging on the walls, photos of the beautiful picturesque mountains and lakes of Scotland, the twirl of the pipes and the waitresses in their kilts, translated me for a few moments back to my homeland and a longing for my “ain folk”. Experiencing a bit of Scotland without being actually being there.
It got me thinking, as we worship together with other believers in God’s house on Sunday do we experience a piece of our eternal homeland without actually being there as we are surrounded by the worship sounds of heaven and are fed the corn of heaven? Or do we see with spiritual eyes the beauty of heaven in the Christian flag displaying the cross reminding us of the price of our citizenship? Yes the gift of life is wonderful and to be appreciated but remember we are only pilgrims here on earth. Are you ever homesick?

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Celebrating The Roots Of Our Faith

November 12, 2017 by Leave a Comment

No better place to celebrate those roots than at the Wailing Wall as the sun sets to usher in Shabbat while thousands gather to praise God in dance, song and prayer.

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As with Jewish tradition the men gather on one side while women gather across a fence.

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Meeting up with Tatyana again in Israel, a young woman, whom I ministered to in Russia last year. How awesome is that! Anything can happen in Israel.

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Shabbat Shalom!

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Visiting The Place Of His Betrayal

November 11, 2017 by Leave a Comment

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After traveling up to the Mount of Olives to admire the breathtaking view of Jerusalem lying before us, we slowly strolled downhill to spend a reflective time at the Garden of Gethsemane. It was as if we could almost touch time as we rubbed our fingers down the trunks of the trees that are over 2000 years old and would have been growing in the Garden when the Lord Jesus agonized in prayer before His crucifixion.

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If those trees could talk what would they tell us? Would we have grown weary as the disciples did? How often have we grown weary and fallen asleep during spiritual warfare?

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Our journey then took us up a row of steps, some of the only authentic stones in Jerusalem that are the actual steps He walked as He was ushered to the palace of the high priest Caiaphas after His arrest and betrayal by Judas.

We saw the place where Peter denied Him and heard the cock crow. My heart was convicted as I pondered how many times I have denied Him by my thoughts or my attitudes?

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It was an emotional and deep spiritual moment as we climbed down the narrow staircase down to the pit where He was imprisoned the night before He carried His cross to Calvary. The walls were spattered with blood. We don’t know but could this be some of the blood He shed for us?

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After we walked the Via Dolorosa following His road to Golgotha, we finished our day in prayer at the Wailing Wall with a deeper, sensitive  appreciation of the awesome cost of our salvation.

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1 Peter 1: 18-19 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold. But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

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Thanksgiving for Family Unity!

November 10, 2017 by Leave a Comment

At this time of the year as we are planning our thanksgiving preparations we often have thoughts of past thanksgivings floating in the air. As I picked up this photo of our first Thanksgiving together in the USA 1973, I was reminiscing of God’s faithfulness to our family through the years.

A photo of a close knit family even to our dress LOL but after all I was a dressmaker! Wow all that sewing! Guess it came from my Scotch-Irish background where the clans would all wear the same tartan to identify family unity.

However you don’t have to dress the same to have family unity. Unity in our families is more than our dress even more than our historical roots. Lasting unity in our families is due to deep spiritual roots when we all have the same Heavenly Father who doesn’t have any grandchildren – only children born of His Spirit whereby we cry out “Abba”.

Be thankful this season not only for your historical roots and parenthood but also for His love, grace and mercy when He adopted us, making our family unity stronger than anything the world or the enemy could use to disintegrate us.

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