Run For Your Life

I wish I could take credit for the thoughts that follow but, alas, I cannot. This comes from a message preached by my own Pastor, Rev. J. Tim Merritt, this past Sunday as we prepared for Communion and Foot Washing service.

I am merely attempting here to put these thoughts in writing. Please go to our website www.truthwaychurch.com to access the entire message. It is well worth your listen.

There was an older couple, Bro. and Sis. Ruth, that we went to church with many years ago. They were true pillars of faith and such a tremendous example for me. On occasion, they would get up and sing this song titled, "I'm Running for my Life." It never failed to get us all in a spirit of worship. The words were simple:

I'm running for my life,
I'm running for my life,
I'm running for my life,
I'm running for my life,
If anybody asks you
What's the matter with me,
You can tell them that I'm saved and I'm sanctified,
I'm Holy Ghost filled and water baptized,
I've got Jesus on my mind,
I'm running for my life.

Genesis 19: 15-26 relates the powerful story of Lot at the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah. Let's go there and read it.

¹⁵ And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.
¹⁶ And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the Lord being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city.
¹⁷ And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.
¹⁸ And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my Lord:
¹⁹ Behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shewed unto me in saving my life; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die:
²⁰ Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let me escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.
²¹ And he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city, for the which thou hast spoken.
²² Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do anything till thou be come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
²³ The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar.
²⁴ Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven;
²⁵ And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
²⁶ But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.


When Lot and Abram parted ways, Lot chose the well watered and beautiful land near Sodom. 

Genesis 13:10-13

¹⁰ And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.
¹¹ Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other.
¹² Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.
¹³ But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly.

Many choices we make look good from a distance, but they are near Sodom, and if we are not careful, we will find ourselves as Lot did. Notice here that Lot "pitched his tent toward Sodom." But, if you look just one chapter over, you find this.

Genesis 14:11-12

¹¹ And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way.
¹² And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.

In a short amount of time, Lot was not just looking toward Sodom, he was in it! He was living there, known in the streets, he was someone in the city. 

Let's take a side track here. Sin will take you farther than you ever planned to go. One day you are just looking at that bad website, one day you are just trying to connect with a "friend" from your past, one day you just decide to go after work with your workmates, but sin never leaves you there. It's usually not a one time stop. Next time it is easier to get a little closer and a littler closer until you are consumed with sin. 

Sodom was a wicked place. If you read the descriptions, it sounds much like the modern day culture we will live in. If you don't think that sin will take you farther than you ever wanted to go, read chapter 19 of Genesis in its entirety. Lot actually offered to give his daughters to the wicked men who came to the door demanding that the angels be sent out to them. What father would do that? I tell you  it is one living outside of the protection of God. 

God's message was clear. Run for your life. Don't look back.

And yet Lot insisted on a compromise, send me to Zoar. 

Zoar which means insignificant. 

Lot had choices to make. And his choices led him to a place of insignificance. 

Has God called you out of a situation? Has he provided you an escape route to a life going nowhere fast? Has He delivered you from sin? 

Run.

Don't argue, quit justifying.

Don't look back. 

The main thing most people think of is Lot's wife who was turned into a pillar of salt for looking back at the life she was leaving behind. Lot's wife, who was never even mentioned by name. Her great claim to fame in the Bible, if you will, was her disobedience and the consequences of it. 

Here we are, folks. 

2019. 

It is crazy to believe that. But, it's true. 

And, it seems to me there is a shift happening. 

We have some decisions to make. Do we leave some things behind and escape these areas that have been harming us spiritually? Do we "pitch our tents" toward the sins that have been holding us back? 

Or do we run and never look back?

RUN. 

I say we RUN.

This is the Will of God for YOU

I had a conversation with someone recently that was telling me about their current situation that seems dire.

You have a place to take a bath, I am assuming. You have clean clothes in your bedroom to wear and a bed to crawl into when the time comes that is warm and safe.

You have food in your pantry and a stove to cook it on.

Most of us have an abundance of STUFF, yet we think we are lacking.

What if you didn't?

Let's say you found yourself without a job, without a home, with one change of clothes, no vehicle, no money, no hope.......

Do you think you would be thankful?

Honestly?

I am going to take a chance and answer that for you.

NO.

You would not.

How can I say that?

Because you are not thankful now.

Oh, I said it. And, if you can be honest, you know it's the truth.

You AREN'T thankful.

Every day you are living in abundance. Even if you choose not to see it.

Do problems come? You bet they do. So does heartache and sorrow. So does grief and pain. He didn't tell us to give thanks when we have an overflow. Let's look at that verse, shall we?

I Thessalonians 5:18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Every.
Thing.

Not In SOME things give thanks.

Not In HAPPY things give thanks.

The person I was talking with is burdened down. Truly at the bottom.

My advise?

Thank GOD for the bottom. Really.

I spent several years outside of the Will of God. Way outside. And, in order for God to bring me back I had to hit my own bottom. I lay awake night after night begging God and in total and utter fear. Because of those times, I have broken places, I have scars that I should not have.

This morning in prayer I began to lift my voice in thanksgiving for every broken place, every scar, because through those scars and through that brokenness I learned to turn to Him to heal me.

Through the death of my parents and through the death of my marriage I learned to turn to Him for comfort.

Through the trials I face I learned to look to Him for guidance and wisdom.

Through the fear I learned to turn to Him for strength.

Because of my own fall, I can see others living outside of the Mercy of God with NEW eyes, eyes of compassion. And it has given me a new sense of urgency to reach the lost world.

As I poured out my thanks to Him this morning, He met me there and poured out His Spirit on me.

This IS the will of God for me.....

2018 - New Year~New Chances

I started this blog in 2006 to help me cope with the terrible health issues of my parents. So much has changed in 11 years.

I think it’s time my Blog did, too.

Be on the lookout for something new coming up soon.

That’s What You Think

I haven’t blogged as much as I should lately. Not because I don’t have anything to say, but because I don’t have a convenient way to say it. I allowed someone to borrow my laptop for a time and it is difficult to compose and catch boo boo’s on my phone because, well, I’m getting older.  Haha

But, I did find something among my comments that I have failed to address. I hate pettiness. Hate it. So, basically I made a decision when I spotted it to let it go. I deleted it.

I’m in a different frame of mind now. I don’t feel like letting it go.

Iniquity is the WILLFUL choice to sin. And I did it. I made some very wrong decisions in my life and those decisions cost me in ways only me and Jesus will ever know.

And I found myself in a world of hurt and disappointment. Because I made wrong choices.

It was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Because I messed my life up I hit bottom. Guess what I found there?

The courage to look up. I lifted my head in the center of calamity and my redemption drew nigh.

The worst pain I have ever experienced has brought me the greatest joy. The destruction of me gave me faith I never had before. And courage I didn’t know existed in me.

I won’t go into great detail but I will say this. Because of this God spoke to me, I have seen miracles in my life that have increased my faith to unbelievable levels.

Yep, I went through it. But no need to feel sorry for me. God had a purpose and a plan. What you meant to harm me He meant for my good

Think what you want. I know.

Because of what happened souls were saved. Because of what happened lives were changed. Because of what happened to me God put me in a position to use me in a mighty way. My problems didn’t take Him by surprise.

I appreciate your concern but I know it wasn’t truly concern for me at all. It was an opportunity for you to thumb your nose at me at a point in my life where I was hurting. And that’s okay. I have learned from experience you never elevate yourself by climbing up on the heartaches of others.

Here is my question for you. What have YOU done to better your life? To dig yourself out of your situation? To make life better for someone else? There is pleasure in sin for a season, but seasons change. If you are so concerned for me did you pray for me? I hope that you did.

God has blessed me beyond measure. So know without a doubt YOU are in my prayers. I’m praying for you. That God will get a hold of you and pull you out of the pit of sin. That He will fill you with the Holy Ghost and make your story and testimony one of power to reach others.

You think you know me. But thank God that person doesn’t exist anymore. All that happened because of my choices is under the blood.  And I sit here tonight at peace.

God bless.

Ears to Hear

The story goes there were two buddies out hunting one chilly morning. As they made their way through the woods to their hunting spot, one of the friends collapsed to the ground, unconscious .

In a panic, the other friend reached for his cell phone to call 911 at which point he told the operator that his friend seemed to be dead.

The operator asked the fearful man to try to remain calm and she would help him. then, she gave him his first direction, check to see if his friend was truly dead.

A gunshot was heard, followed by the man asking, "Now what?"

The English language is complicated. Playing a game on my phone where I take letters and make words out of them leaves me feeling inadequate almost every time I play. I will get stumped and begin to "make up" words to fit the spaces only to realize as the word is accepted that the way I was sounding it out in my head was nowhere close to the real word once I could see in in front of me. And, that realization makes me stop every time to think why did I not recognize that word when I was spelling it in my head.

So many of our words have different meaning and different pronunciation with the same exact spelling.

Just reading a sentence you can make it sound and mean different things if you are not careful and do not recognize the intent of the words as they are written.

In my time talking to my Friend recently I just kept saying over and over, "Lord, let me have ears to hear."

We have lost the art of listening. We don't listen to hear any longer, we listen soley to respond.

Active listening is an art that has gone out of fashion. Modern society is too worried about being heard, we don't really care to be spoken to. We long simply for our feelings and thoughts to be validated.

Lord, give me ears to hear.

Jesus mentions eight times from what I can tell some variation of "if any man have ears to hear, let him hear."

Each time He is giving direction.

"And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses. But what went ye out for to see?A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heave suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." (Mat 11:7-15)

"Behold, a sower went forth to sow; And whn he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: Some fell upon sony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." (Mat 13: 3-9)

"The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things what offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." (Mat 13:41-43)

"For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secre, but that it should come abroad. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear." (Mark 4:22-23)

"Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. If any man hath ears to hear, let him hear." (Mark 7:14-16)

"Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." (Luke 14: 34-35)

During every single day of our lives we have opportunities to have hundreds and sometimes thousands of words pass within our hearing range. This means that every single day we have hundreds and sometimes thousands of opportunities to listen, but not only to listen, to hear.

God speaks to us in so many ways. During my prayer time I entreated Him with specific needs. And, then I listened. Not with my ears, with my heart. Before long the Spirit of God within me responded with cries and grownings to the Voice of God in me.

Are you facing a situation that seems to be "dead" in your eyes? Instead of listening for the Voice of Truth concerning your lifeless dream, your marriage on life support, your child in a spiritual coma, have you "heard" the message God has sent you but instead of hearing Him say, "Listen, is it REALLY dead?" you hear "It IS really dead" and have a funeral while there is still a heartbeat?

Do you have ears? Maybe it is time you use them to LISTEN. Really LISTEN.

Is your situation out of control? Listen. The correction and the call to obedience is not the death toll on your situation, but more than likely it is the Lord saying "Come forth" to that which you declared dead. If you will but LISTEN to direction and apply it to your life, to your problems.

He that hath ears, let him hear the voice of the Lord, the voice of power, the voice of deliverence, the voice of redemption, the voice of correction, the true sound of mercy and grace and love.

Lord, please let me hear Your voice in my life, through Your Word, through my pastor, and let me LISTEN to HEAR. I don't want to miss a single opportunity to serve You. Help me to hear Your voice above the noise of the world. I need to hear You.

At the Heart of the Matter

What had happened was....
I had this great revelation at God spoke to me. Oh, I have heard His voice before, loud and clear.

But what had happened was....so had my heart.

My deceitful heart.

My wicked heart.

My deceitful, wicked heart, it heard God, too. And, thinking it was noble and honorable I heard from God about something I wanted to do, only it wasn't God at all. Sounded just like Him, but it was me.

And I allowed what I thought was God to change the course of my life

Only it wasn't Him.

See, your heart can mimic the Voice of God in you. And here you will be with your great revelation that God has spoken to you and now you can and SHOULD do this great thing you had already made up in your mind to do. Only NOW GOD has also told you to do it.

Heard a story of a single mother of 6 who "heard from God" and just knew she was supposed to be a missionary to some foreign country (where someone she had met on the internet just HAPPENED to reside). She excitedly told her pastor who then told her, in no uncertain terms, she had NOT heard from GOD. His will was for her to stay here and raise her children.

I thought with clear certainty that God had given me direction, that He had outlined a course for me. Oh, others tried to tell me it wasn't so, but I wouldn't listen. How could THEY know what God had told me to do?

So, what had happened was I listened to my heart, and I was deceived. Terribly deceived. The path and the distruction that followed forever changed who I am.

I won't say it was all bad. There has been good that has come out of this season. I have learned that He loves me in spite of my iniquity. I have learned that He still speaks to me and I have learned to listen for HIS voice in my life.

Through this season I have come to trust Him more than I ever imagined. He has shown me His great love for me in ways I never thought possible. Miracles have taken place as He pulled me out of the mirey clay of my life. And they continue even now.

So when the time came again to make a life altering decision, I prayed a different prayer. I told Him I could not trust my deceitful heart, I needed a word from the man of God from HIM and I needed it now.

At service that night during the altar call the minister said he was waiting on someone. I went up and he came to me and said he had been waiting on me. That God had a word for me. And after he got my pastor he began to tell me things only my God would know. Things I asked Him to tell me, direction I needed to go.

It was God's voice that caused me to leave the familiar and head for the safety of those who love me.

Here I am. Healing and growing and full of more faith than I ever imagined.

Isaiah 6:8 is part of the blessing of God my Pastor prays over us at the close of every Sunday night service.

"Here am I, send me."

Send me, Lord to the lost and the hurting.

Send me, to the broken and the bruised.

Send me to the ones that have been cast aside.

Send me to the hopeless.

Through my life you have given me such a burden for the lost, for the backslider, for the forgotten. Help me to remember what it felt like to be so outside your will that I thought I was lost forever, that I thought I did not deserve your mercy or grace.

And send me to those with a ministry of joy that comes from being able to hear YOUR VOICE above all the other voices in our lives. Let me never forget Your great love and where it has taken me from and where it has taken me to.

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?

Help me to always test Your voice in my life.

When It Happens To You

There is not much that can prepare you for loss. I have been a "half full" kinda person my whole life, but there are times when I am staring face to face with an empty vessel and I was in no way ready to fill it back.

Life has a way of just happening.

You can be cruising along at a steady pace when suddenly you find you either need to speed up to warp speed or stop completely, usually landing with a thud.

I will be the first to say that I thought I was strong. After carrying grief on my shoulders I figured I could over come anything.

We have a tendency as fleshly creatures to get ourselves into some terrible places. We get complacent, we get forgetful, we get lazy, we get selfish, we get silly, and we get blinded by what we consider circumstances beyond our control. We place ourselves in harms way and cry when we are harmed.

I have read back over my blogs from the past and all my words of wisdom and yet it happened to me. I failed. Not God, me. I got my eyes off of God and placed them on man, off the infallible and onto the fallible. I placed myself, my family, into harm's way because I lost sight of who I was.

It was the thud that got my attention.

The long, hard fall that shook me. It was the realization that I had bound myself up, placed myself in prison and was waiting for someone else to come unlock the door that was standing wide open.

It was me that woke up in the pig pen and remembered how it was in my Father's house.

You do not wake up one day and decide to turn your back on God. It is a slow, easy stroll, sometimes, and when you finally stop to look around, you have no idea where you are.

But, He does. He has been standing, watching for your return. You are that lost coin. You are that long, lost son. You are that ONE sheep.

And, He longs for you. He longs for YOU.

Lord, I am ever so thankful today that You have never forsaken me. Help me to continue to gain ground and find my purpose again. You have never let me down, and I want to keep my eyes on you and not the storms that surround me, at times. My Hope is in YOU.

I heard this song coming home from church about a month or so ago. I almost had to pullled the car over. So thankful for the beautiful things and people in my life. https://youtu.be/_u_eGtgUxh0