A Christ Follower: The Journey

Some of My Favorite Verses   YOU CAN DO IT!   I can do all things through Christ who provides me strength. Philippians 4:13        Today is a new day and it is jam packed with opportunities to "be."  The problem is when many of us think about the challenges ahead, we begin to feel insecure.  From where is that insecurity coming?  Now that's a good question.  Answer it, and we might just take hold of that for which Christ has taken hold of us and then press on.        I think part of the insecurity is where we are placing our focus:  It just might be that our locus of focus is more on the problem than it is on the ONE who might just solve the problem.  My British Mum use to remind me "I can't cannot do anything." If you focus, even on the possibility that you cannot, there is a real good change you will not.  Therefore during such times it is a good time to admi...

He was wounded for our breaking God's law He was bruised for our premeditated sinning The punishment that bought us peace was placed upon Him. And by His stripes we are healed . Isaiah     The story below was reported in USA Today and "Women's Day" Taylor Hale, 18, probably shouldn't be alive today. She was declared brain dead,   taken off life support , and her family started making funeral arrangements. But then the "Hand of God" intervened. On September 11, 2011, Taylor was messing around with friends and fell off the hood of a car, hitting her head. She had suffered a severe brain injury and was placed in a medically induced coma, in hopes her brain would heal. A week into her hospital stay, an unresponsive Taylor had a brain hemorrhage. Her already poor prognosis got even more dismal. Despite attempts to save her life, a part of Taylor's brain dipped into her spinal canal, basically ending the road for the teenager. ...

Enter into His Gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise.  Give thanks to Him; bless His Holy Name! Psalm 100:4        Imagine how you would feel if your child came to you and demanded, "I want more" when you have already given sacrificially to her or him.  Over a while it could become rather challenging. On the other hand, imagine the child snuggling up to you and saying, "Thank you for being who you are. I just love you, and I know you are doing the best for me because you are the best there is." That would make you feel great.        Now imagine our loving Heavenly Father sitting in the heavenly places hearing his child coming to Him wanting more than the sacrifice of His Son.  Oh, it's not that He doesn't want us to cast all our cares upon Him because he does care for us.  But I am fairly certain God appreciates being appreciated.         He said it this ...

Remembering   Today I remembering that on this day, in 2001 (4/26/2001) Margaret Mary Johnston McGowen graduated to GLORY. She did not fear death, but each one of us gathered around, as her children, grandchildren and other family members. And we sang hymns with her until she could not sing until her final breath. Once she graduated, I had the absolute privilege of committing her Spirit to her loving Creator and our God.   I am so grateful for the values that she and Charlie Morrison McGow en taught and lived: If you believe in Jesus the Son of God, and follow him, if you deny yourself take up THE CROSS and follow him, then you need not fear the grave. Thanks be to God! I am Praying today for all who read this to believe in Jesus and Follow him...especially praying for all the grandchildren and great grandchildren to embrace these truths. She loves each one of you dearly. She would love to see you in Heaven.   We all will be at the plac...

Debunking The Lie Guest Blog   Liberals have long wanted you to believe there's a consensus in America for redefining marriage, but now they are going global! Last month, Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh, along with a team of foreign law experts, submitted an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to join the "emerging global consensus" for same-sex marriage -- essentially arguing that since most countries in the world are jumping off this moral cliff, why shouldn't we? If that philosophy -- which most of our mothers warned us against as children -- wasn't weak enough, they also need to dust off their World Book Encyclopedia. Turns out, less than 9 percent of the countries belonging to the United Nations have redefined marriage -- and only one of them did so through the courts!   To correct the record, Brigham Young University law professors Lynn Wardle and Elizabeth Clark, along with 54 international law scholars, filed their own brief to the Court,...

THE LIGHT THAT WILL NOT SHINE " You are the light of the world a city on the hill that cannot be hidden." Matthew 5:14  JESUS SPEAKING.          Recently, when I was speaking with someone about reaching out to others, I heard something that really got me to thinking:  The individual said, "I have nothing for them." I remember my son also, when he was teaching a class on Romans, talk about how that only a small percentage of the Church really are involved in ministry.  Yet as I think about these statements and what Jesus said above, it troubles me  that, even though Jesus was emphatic identifying us as the light of the world and a city that sitting up on a hill side, that it is so very easy for many of us to not resemble the identities he gave us.   It troubles me that there are some of us "light bulbs" that simply will not shine... or we are NOT the "brightest bulbs in the pack." Why cannot...

Encouraging Persecuted Christians  Ten year old Marlene woke up crying  last August 6th.  Her mother Intisar told her that the noise she was hearing was fire crackers; however, it was actually the sound of explosions and rifle fire coming from the weaponry of ISIS.  Their home in Quaraqosh, 20 miles east of Mosul, had lost power. Needless to say, between all the explosions and the darkness, the children were terrified.   Intisar was also terrified.  She knew about the beheadings, the pain and all the persecution that ISIS was visiting upon any Christian families with whom they were having contact. In a short while they fled their home, and at the very first check point they were forced to abandon their car. Marlene is unable to walk; therefore they had to carry her for approximately a mile to the very next checkpoint. The Kurdish soldiers were not letting anyone through, but once they noticed Marlene's disability, they allowed the f...