Winning with the Word

June 14, 2025Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Saturday, June 14, 2025, and this is episode #8 in Series 2025. This episode is titled, “An Interview with Dr. Dominic Diorio on the End Times." Listen here! Friend, if you want to escape not only the horrors of the Great Tribulation but also the horrors of an eternity in Hell, accept Jesus Christ now. Don't wait another moment. Pray this simple prayer with me now:Lord Jesus, I want to escape the unspeakable horrors of the Great Tribulation that is soon to begin. Even more than that, I want to escape the eternal fires of Hell. So I ask You now to come into my life. I believe that You are the Son of God Who died to save me and Who rose from the dead. I receive You as my Savior and Lord. Help me to live for You all the days of my life. In Your Name I pray. Amen.If you sincerely prayed this prayer from your heart, you are now a born-again child of God. You have been given an inheritance by God Himself that includes hope, peace, and joy. Write to me at drmaryannn@maryanndiorio.com, and I will send you a free PDF e-booklet titled After You're Born Again. In case you are not aware, I write heart-mending fiction that deals with the deepest issues of life. In my stories you will find characters just like you who struggle with what look like impossible problems and situations. Check out my books at my online bookstore at shop.maryanndiorio.com. That's shop.maryanndiorio.com. Also, visit me on Substack at drmaryanndiorio.substack.com and subscribe to my blog and podcast titled “The Relationship Road.” There you will find valuable information on creating and cultivating healthful relationships based on God's Word.Winning with the Word is available on Apple Podcasts and other major podcast venues as well as on YouTube. Check out my YouTube channel at youtube.com/drmaryanndiorio.Until next time, remember that God loves you just as you are and just where you are. Yet He doesn't want to keep you there. As you live in Him, He will help you to keep on winning with the Word._______________________________________Copyright 2025 by MaryAnn Diorio, PhD. All Rights Reserved. Visit my ONLINE BOOKSHOP.

https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/2025_06_07_The_Truth_about_Depression.mp3 June 7, 2025 Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Saturday, June 7, 2025, and this is episode #7 in Series 2025. This episode is titled, "The Truth about Depression."In the past few months, I have received far too much tragic news about people who have committed suicide. Some of these were middle-grade and teenage children!Friend, this should not be. These tragedies lead us to ask ourselves what is going on? Why is this happening? And why is it happening at younger and younger ages? Also, why is depression now so commonplace, to the point that it has become an epidemic and a household word?When I was a young teen, I was excited about my future, despite the fact that I was then living in a very difficult family situation. I had dreams and goals and the hope and ambition to pursue them. But far fewer young people today have that same hope and ambition. Instead, they are drowning in a sea of depression and despair, with no seeming way of escape.But young people aren't the only ones affected by depression and hopelessness. More and more people are complaining of being trapped in the grips of depression, with no hope for a future. The number of people taking mental health medications has skyrocketed, to the point that these people cannot function normally without them. Anxiety prevails, causing people to resort to drastic measures to obtain a semblance of peace. Something has gone drastically wrong. And while the solution is right under our noses, few are willing to look there. So, let's explore this problem of depression and uncover what is really going on behind the scenes., I think you will agree that for every effect there has to be a cause. This is simple logic. While we may not know the cause, we know there is one because logic demands as much. So, when we witness increasing incidences of depression and despair in a culture, a despair increasingly resulting in suicide, we need to trace these effects back to their original cause. Once we know the cause, we can take measures to alleviate the cause and, thereby, create a different effect.With that thought in mind, let's take a look at the last 75 to 100 years in America and in western civilization as a whole. How would we describe the state of the world 100 years ago vs. the state of the world today? What is the mindset of people today vs. the mindset of people living in the first part of the 20th century? As you follow along with me, I think you will discover some very interesting facts.Having conducted my own research on the topic—and, better yet, having lived on this earth through nearly 80 of those 100 most recent years—here are two observations I have made: 1) One hundred years ago, in the first half of the 20th century, the cultural consensus was rooted in a Judeo-Christian philosophy of life. While many people were not Christians, the majority of the population respected and lived by the Judeo-Christian principles espoused in the Ten Commandments. Lest you do not know what these principles are, they can be summed up in what we call the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. In other words, treat other people as you would like them to treat you.In fact, 100 years ago most people lived by these principles. Yes, there were evil people back then just as there are today and have been throughout human history. But the culture as a whole did not look favorably upon evil people. Their behavior was considered shameful. And that public disapproval—that peer pressure, as it were, against wrongdoing— provided a great deterrent to evil.Take pregnancy outside of marriage, for example. A girl in my high school became pregnant outside of marriage and was expelled from school.

May 31, 2025 Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Saturday, May 31, 2025, and this is episode #6 in Series 2025. This episode is titled, “It's All about Control!"What's all about control? The events we see going on in the world today.Our world is fast moving toward the rise of the AntiChrist and his global dictatorship. Everything is being set up for the establishment of the Beast system and, sad to say, most of the world is clueless.What about you? Are you clueless, too? If so, listen to this podcast to the very end so that you can be prepared for what lies ahead in the very near future. You've very likely heard of the accelerated move toward the digitalization of our world, including the financial, medical, and social segments of society. Digital currency is making major head-roads in Europe, with the soon establishment of the digital Euro by 2026, if not before. The European Central Bank has stated that it "hopes to have a political deal on the digital Euro by early 2026." I've posted the article containing this quote under "Sources Cited" in the show notes.In another article, posted by Accenture and titled "The Digital Euro: A strategic step toward Europe's monetary sovereignty?," the author explains that "cash is rapidly losing ground" and being replaced by a digital system that will purportedly make monetary transactions safer and more convenient.Pay attention to the words "safer" and "more convenient." You will be hearing and seeing those words more and more as the world becomes completely digitalized. Under the guise of safety and convenience, the New World Order is setting up a system of control over the entire world population. Eventually, as they proclaim, "You will have nothing and be happy."Why will you have nothing?Because your freedom is being gradually stolen from you, under your very nose. And you are very likely unaware that it's happening. What looks like a "safer and more convenient" way of living is actually leading to tyranny. Lest you think I am being far-fetched and alarmist, consider this:__Surveillance cameras are everywhere, watching our every move. One writer noted that the United States has more surveillance cameras per person than any other country in the world. (https://theconversation.com/surveillance-is-pervasive-yes-you-are-being-watched-even-if-no-one-is-looking-for-you-187139)__More and more countries are requiring more and more identification processes—like iris scanning, facial scanning, palm scanning, and on and on—in order to travel, purchase, and do things we used to do without such scanning.__When you're online, websites use ad-trackers and third-party cookies to gather information about you. These ad-trackers and third-party cookies are stored in your browser and follow you around from site to site, enabling advertisers to follow you around as well.__These days, surveillance is the name of the game in healthcare as well. A recent article, titled "AI may be listening in on your doctor's appointment," raises a red flag on another aspect of stolen freedom. (https://endtimeheadlines.org/2025/05/ai-may-be-listening-in-on-your-doctors-appointment/)__If you wear a device to monitor your health, such as a FitBit or SmartWatch, you are being surveilled. It has been noted that there is an eerie resemblance between a FitBit and the ankle bracelets people wear when being monitored by a court of law. The analogy reminds me of the heavy chain prisoners used to have to wear around their ankles.__Perhaps the biggest tracking culprit of all is your cell phone. GPS gives your location to maps and weather apps. WiFi and Bluetooth can pinpoint your phone's location. Do you use gaming apps? Then your information is being tracked. Do you own a late-model car? Then very likely your car employs telematics, such as OnStar or Bluelink to track your location.

May 22, 2025Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Thursday, May 22, 2025, and this is episode #5 in Series 2025. This episode is titled, “Christianity is NOT a Religion!”What I am about to say may surprise you, even stun you. But it is a truth with eternal consequences, a truth that is widely misunderstood but needs to be understood.My statement is this: Christianity is NOT a religion. It is a relationship.Let me say that again: Christianity is NOT a religion. It is a relationship.Understanding the difference is crucial to understanding Christianity. You see, my friend, religion is all about earning one's way to Heaven by doing good works. The American Heritage Dictionary defines "religion" as follows: "A set of beliefs, values, and practices based on the teachings of a spiritual leader." And the leader of every belief system except Christianity teaches that one must earn his way to Heaven by doing good works.While we cannot explore every belief system in existence today, let's look at the top most prominent ones outside of Christianity and what their leaders teach. I quote directly from websites on each of these belief systems:1. Islam: The leader of Islam is Mohammed. Mohammed taught the following. I quote from an article titled "What's the Road to Heaven according to Islam?" by Professor Shahul Hameed, President of the Kerala Islamic Mission, Calicut, India: I quote Professor Hameed: ". . . In Islam, both faith and good works are of equal importance; indeed they are two sides of the same coin." (https://aboutislam.net/counseling/ask-about-islam/road-heaven-islam/2. Hinduism: This belief system teaches that a person's karma, or the sum total of his good and bad deeds in his previous life, determines the level into which he will return in their next life. The ultimate goal is to be released from the rebirth cycle when one reaches moksha. Moksha is what the Hindus believe is ultimate salvation. It is a state of enlightenment achieved only through a series of good works done from one life to the next. Once a person reaches moskha, the rebirth cycle is broken and one goes to loka or Heaven. (https://hinduismfacts.org/reincarnation/salvation/) 3. Buddhism also teaches reincarnation but a continual reincarnation until one reaches nirvana, similar to the Hindu's moksha. To the Buddhist, death is not an ending but simply the beginning of a new life. What one will become in the new life results from the works one has done in his previous life. This process continues until one becomes free from the cycle of death and rebirth and reaches nirvana, or heaven.4. Judaism also teaches that salvation results from one's works. At the same time, salvation for the Jew is collective and national, not personal and individual. Jewish teaching does, however, place responsibility for sin on the sinner. Judaism teaches that the individual can atone for his sin by repentance and by doing good works. He has no need of anyone to save him. He can save himself through repenting of his sin and doing good works to make up for them. (https://chosenpeople.com/salvation-as-interpreted-by-judaism/)Did you notice that all four of the above belief systems involve good works as an essential part of salvation and going to Heaven?Yet, when we come to Christianity, we see that good works have nothing to do with salvation and going to Heaven. Let's read what the Bible says in the Book of Ephesians 2: 8-9 NLT:"God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it."Christianity teaches that no one can earn his way to Heaven. No one can do enough good works to qualify for Heaven. Why not? Because no human being can meet God's perfect standard of justice for sin. Not a single one of us could ever pay God enough for our sin...

https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/2025_05_15_Where_Is_the_World_Headed_.mp3 May 15, 2025Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Thursday, May 15, 2025, and this is episode #5 in Series 2025. This episode is titled, “Where Is Humanity Headed?"Where IS humanity headed? Do you know? Do you wish you knew? Are you afraid, or doesn't it faze you?Well, if you're like most people, you are concerned about what's going on in the world around us. As the saying goes, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that the world is on the brink of destruction, and all of it, sadly, is self-imposed.So, where exactly is the world headed? While most people are frantically trying to figure it out or have completely tuned it out, there are answers to this very legitimate question. And those answers are found in a place where most people refuse to venture. That place is within the pages of the Holy Bible.If you had a negative, visceral reaction to what I just said, you need to hear what I'm about to say because it could literally save your life. This is no time for playing games, my friend, and if you truly care about your future, then you will choose to listen closely to the rest of this podcast.The Bible is a book replete with predictions about the future. Most of them have already come true—exactly as predicted. Some are currently in the process of coming true—exactly as predicted. And a few still remain to come true and will occur exactly as predicted.Let's take a look at some of these prophecies and compare them with what's happening in the news today. Number 1: 2 Peter 3 NIV - " . . . in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, 'Where is this ‘coming' he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.'”Wherever I turn these days, I find mockers of Christ's promise to return. While I hope not, perhaps you are one of them. If so, I would warn you to stop your mocking. If you don't, you will one day deeply regret it. No one can call God a liar and get away with it. So stop calling Him a liar. Just because His promise to return hasn't yet come to pass does not mean that it won't.Number 2: Matthew 24: 7 NIV . . . "There will be famines and earthquakes in various places."Well, you might say, "Dr. MaryAnn, there have always been famines and earthquakes," and you would be right. But we can't deny that there are more earthquakes today than ever before, and in places where we never used to hear of earthquakes. I have spent most of my life in New Jersey, and for the first 65 years of my life, I don't recall ever experiencing an earthquake. In the last decade, however, New Jersey has had three earthquakes measuring over 4.0. This is highly unusual for my area. The same can be said of places like upstate New York, Indiana, and Ohio. Those states are not known for earthquake activity. Consider also the Phlegrean Fields outside of Naples, Italy, a supervolcano now on the verge of a catastrophic eruption. Or Yellowstone National Park, also on the brink of a disastrous eruption. These are developments in the earth that are direct fulfillments of Bible prophecy.Number 3: 1 Thessalonians 5: 3 NIV - "While people are saying, 'Peace and safety,' destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape."Interestingly, if you go to the website of the United Nations, you will find the phrase "peace and safety" or "peace and security" written in multiple places. Just out of curiosity, I did a search on how many times the phrase "peace and security" occurs on the UN website as of the recording of this podcast, and the results listed 8012 times!But not only do we see thie phrase "peace and security" on the UN website,

April 24, 2025Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Story Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Thursday, April 24, 2025, and this is episode #4 in Series 2025. This episode is titled, “Do You Know Who You Are?"Let me ask the question again. Do You know who you are?You may be thinking, What a ridiculous question! Of course, I know who I am. I'm an accountant. Or, I'm a plumber. Or, I'm an electrician. Or, I'm a lawyer. Or, I'm a teacher. Or, I'm a basketball coach. Or, I'm the CEO of XYZ Company. Or, I'm a mom. Or, I'm a grandfather—and on and on and on it can go.But let me ask you a question: Is that who you really are? What if your career were suddenly stripped from you? What if, God forbid, your family and friends were suddenly taken from you? Who would you be then?Have you ever considered this profound question? If not, I would urge you to do so. For you see, who you believe you are is at the very foundation of your purpose on this earth. Who you believe yourself to be will determine your path in life, and whether that path takes you to fulfillment or to destruction, to life or to death.Sadly, most of us grow up with the idea that we will discover our identity in our job or career. And so, we plod along, year after year, until one day we realize that, despite the outward success, we feel empty on the inside. As a Life Coach, I have had numerous clients over the years come to me in their forties and fifties, admitting that the career they thought would satisfy them never did. In almost every single case, the client discovered that he was not living in God's purpose for his life, but in his own.Recently, I have been discipling my three teenage granddaughters using the outstanding Lifeway Bible study titled Defined. It was created by the Kendrick Brothers, producers of several powerful Christian movies, including The Overcomer. (As an aside, if you haven't seen The Overcomer, I urge you to do so.) In the Defined series for Girls, author and Bible teacher Priscilla Shirer discusses the topic of identity with a group of young women who face the identity struggle all of us face at some point in life. You, too, may be struggling to know who you are and why you're here on this earth. You, too, may be wondering how to discover who you really are. If so, stay with me until the end of this podcast. I'm going to give you some insights you may never have considered before in your journey toward discovering who you really are.Now, hear what I'm going to say next because it is a game-changer. There is only one way to discover who you truly are, and that is by turning to God for the answer. I'm going to repeat that because it's critically important: There is only one way to discover who you truly are, and that is by turning to God for the answer. Now, before you get upset with me, consider these four points, taken from the Defined study:1_God made you. Only the one who made something can define what it is. If you create something—let's say a work of art or a tool of some sort—only you have the right to say what it is.2_God owns you. He purchased you with the greatest price of all, the Blood of His Son Jesus Christ. If you purchase something, it's yours and only you have the right to do with it what you choose.3_God has authority over you. Only the creator of something has authority over his creation. Only the creator of something can determine the purpose for which he created it. Since God created you, He alone can determine your purpose. Only you have authority over something you create.4_ God knows you better than anyone knows you, even you yourself. Because God made you, no one knows you better than He does. So no one else has the right to tell you who you are. If you create a painting, no one besides you has the right to tell you what the painting means.Now, considering these four points, doesn't it make sense then that God alone can tell you who you are?

by MaryAnn Diorio, PhDApril 16, 2025Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Story Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Wednesday, April 16, 2025, and this is episode #3 in Series 2025. This episode is titled, "Can History Prove the Resurrection?"To my knowledge, nothing has caused more controversy throughout human history than the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Satan has made every attempt to discredit this historical fact and continues to do so today. In this podcast, I would like to share seven historical facts that support and prove the Resurrection:1) All four Gospels recount the events of Christ's death and resurrection. The Gospels were written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—all followers of Christ. Three of them—Matthew, Mark, and John—were eyewitnesses to these major historic events and testify to them. The fourth, Luke, learned about the resurrection from earlier eyewitnesses of the events.2) Many of the eyewitnesses to Christ's death and resurrection gave their lives rather than denounce what they had seen with their own eyes. They died for more than just a cause they believed in. They died for the very facts they saw with their own eyes. They refused to deny the facts, although doing so would have likely spared them from death. But they chose to side with the truth of what they had seen, not to lie in order to save their own skin.3) History shows that Christ's grave was in fact empty. The stone had been rolled away. His body was never found. Although Roman soldiers guarded his tomb, he still disappeared from it. Here is how the Holy Scriptures describe the event in Matthew chapter 28:"And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men."So the guards themselves saw this angel who made them tremble. They knew that something supernatural had happened. Yet, they allowed themselves to be bribed for fear of their own death. You see, in those days, if a Roman soldier failed in his assignment to guard a prisoner and the prisoner escaped, the soldier himself was killed. In Matthew 28: 11-15 ESV, we read what really happened after the guards saw the angel and discovered that Jesus was missing:"While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers and said, “Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.' And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day."Did you catch that last sentence? "And they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day." Rather than tell the truth about what they saw, the guards accepted the bribe to save their lives and told the Jews that Christ's body had been stolen. And TO THIS DAY, the lie continues to be spread! 4) After Jesus rose from the dead, He appeared to numerous people. About 500 in fact! He talked with them, ate with them, touched them. In Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, he writes this:"I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles.

by Dr. MaryAnn Diorio January 31, 2025Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Story Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Friday, January 31, 2025, and this is episode #2 in Series 2025. This episode is titled “The Truth about Healing—Part 3." It is the last episode in my three-part series on healing. Are you sick today? If so, listen up because I'm going to share with you some principles about healing that will help you to receive the healing that Jesus Christ died to give you.There has been much erroneous teaching about healing. Perhaps you have been taught some of it. For example, here are some common misconceptions about healing to which people cling:1) God does not heal everyone.2) It is not always God's will to heal.3) Healing is not for today because Jesus Christ is no longer on the earth.I could include many more misconceptions, but let's focus on these three. 1) God doesn't heal everyone.A close look at the Gospels shows that Jesus never turned away anyone who came to Him for healing. Repeatedly, we read the words, "And He healed them all." For example . . . Matthew 4: 24 - "News about him spread as far as Syria, and people soon began bringing to him all who were sick. And whatever their sickness or disease, or if they were demon possessed or epileptic or paralyzed--he healed them all."Matthew 12: 15 - "And many followed him, and he healed them all."Matthew 15: 30 - "A vast crowd brought to him people who were lame, blind, crippled, those who couldn't speak, and many others. They laid them before Jesus, and he healed them all."2) It is not always God's will to heal. This is the second misconception. It is not always God's will to heal. During the Lord's ministry on earth, a leper approached him, asking if Jesus was willing to heal him.Let's read this incident in Luke 5: 12-13 - "In one of the villages, Jesus met a man with an advanced case of leprosy. When the man saw Jesus, he bowed with his face to the ground, begging to be healed. 'Lord,' he said, 'if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean.' Jesus reached out and touched him. 'I am willing,' he said. 'Be healed!' And instantly the leprosy disappeared."You might object that just because Jesus was willing to heal the leper, He is willing to heal everyone. Well, let's take a look at two more Scripture verses that will bring more clarity.First, in Hebrews 13: 8, we read: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever."Second, in Romans 2: 11, we read: "For God does not show favoritism."So we see that Jesus Christ hasn't changed and that He has no favorites. So if He is willing to heal one person, He is certainly willing to heal everyone. 3) Healing is not for today because Jesus is no longer on the earth. Well, the truth is that Jesus is on the earth in us, His believers, His followers. We are called the Body of Christ. Moreover, Jesus commissioned those of us who follow Him to continue the work that He did while on earth. That work includes healing the sick.Let's take a look at Christ's commission to us in Mark 16: 15-18:"And then he told them, 'Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned. These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name, and they will speak in new languages. They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won't hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.'”In light of these Scripture verses, we can see the following:1) God heals everyone who has faith to be healed. 2) It is always God's will to heal.3) Healing is for today because the Body of Christ is still on the earth and Jesus Christ never changes.Jesus says what He means and He means what He says. When He says you were healed by His stripes,

January 17, 2025 Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Story Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Friday, January 17, 2025, and this is episode #1 in Series 2025. This episode is titled "The Truth about Healing—Part 2."Wherever we turn, people are sick. And, it seems, getting sicker. Perhaps you are one of them.If so, you need to listen to this podcast or read this blog post to the very end. It is the second in a series on healing I started last year.So, what's the deal with sickness? Where does it come from? Why does it come? And are we doomed just to live with it?Let's start with the first question: What's the deal with sickness? The deal is that it's a raw deal. A bad deal. Not a deal anyone wants to engage in. So why is there sickness?There's sickness because there's sin. Sickness has its roots in sin. This doesn't necessarily mean that the sick person has personally sinned. It means that when sin entered the world through the rebellion and fall of Adam and Eve, sickness was not far behind. Sickness is the offspring of sin, as is every evil thing in the world today. If Adam and Eve had not sinned, there would be no sickness. In fact, when God created them and placed them in the Garden of Eden, they were perfectly healthy in spirit, soul, and body. They were in perfect alignment with God.That's what health is, really. Alignment with God. When sin came into the world, this alignment was not only skewed; it was completely shattered. As descendants of Adam and Eve, we now share in that awful misalignment. You may ask why? Because we inherited Adam's sin nature. When Adam sinned, his nature became corrupted. Misaligned. Out of sync with God. So when Adam and Eve had children, that's all they could pass on to future generations. A sin nature. Adam and Eve's perfect, healthful nature had been destroyed by disobedience to God. All that was now left was a corrupted nature.So here we are today, still experiencing the consequences of Adam and Eve's sin. And sickness is one of those consequences.But lest you fall into despair, dear friend, let me now give you the good news. The good news is that Jesus Christ, through His death and resurrection, overcame the consequences of Adam's sin and restored to mankind Adam's original, uncorrupted nature. Is that something to shout about, or what? But, there's a catch. The only way man can now experience Adam's original, uncorrupted nature is by being born again. In other words, by accepting Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. When you are born again, you instantly receive the nature of Christ which is incorruptible. The nature of Christ is also perfectly healthy. This new nature comes to reside on the inside of you and to make you what the Bible calls "a new creation." The born again person, therefore, has a new nature on the inside of him. The nature of Christ. And Christ is not sick!"Well, then, Dr. MaryAnn, "you may be asking, "why are so many Christians sick?" Fair question! The reason is found in the Bible in Hosea 4: 6 where God says, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." In other words, Christians are sick because they don't know they're supposed to be well!Now before you turn off this podcast or stop reading this blog post, do yourself a favor and get all the facts. Because God is God, He cannot lie. So when He says something in His Word, He means it, right? Okay. Let's look at some of the things God has said in the Bible about healing:___Exodus 15: 26 NIV - "I am the LORD, who heals you."___ Jeremiah 30: 17 NASB - "For I will restore you to health And I will heal you of your wounds,' declares the LORD."___Psalm 41: 3 - "The LORD will sustain him upon his sickbed; In his illness, You restore him to health.___Matthew 12: 15 NASB - "Many followed Him, and He healed them all . . . ."___Matthew 8: 17 NLT - "“He took our sicknesses and removed our diseases.”I could go on and on with verses proving that God hate...

November 29, 2024 Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Bible Teacher, Novelist, and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Friday, November 29, 2024, and this is episode #24 in Series 2024. This episode is titled, “HELL Is a Real Place."Thousands of people today think that Hell is only a figment of one's imagination. An imaginary place that doesn't really exist. After all, why would a good and loving God send people to Hell?While the question is valid, if one thinks this way, one does not understand the nature of God and the depravity of man. You see, my friend, God is both merciful and just. Mercy and justice are two sides of the same coin of the Being Who is called God. When God created man and woman—and yes, He created only two genders, male and female—God gave them free will and dominion over the earth. He placed two trees in the Garden of Eden--the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God warned Adam and Eve not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil but to eat only of the Tree of Life. If they ate of the Tree of Life, they would be blessed. But if they disobeyed God and ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they would be cursed.Why? Because God did not want them to experience evil, only good. If they rebelled against Him to obtain knowledge of evil, however, they would be cursed. Notice that God forbade them to eat of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God wanted to protect Adam and Eve—and all of us—from knowing evil and, as a result, from experiencing the curse of death.Let me ask you a question: Has it been of any benefit to you to learn about evil? Has knowing evil done you any good? If we're honest, none of us wants evil in our lives. Yet, we experience evil because Adam and Eve, the original parents of the entire human race, disobeyed God. So, how does all of this relate to Hell? Interestingly, all of this is closely related to Hell. When God warned Adam and Eve against rebelling and disobeying Him, He also warned them that disobedience would bring a curse. That curse was eternal separation from God. In other words, God said that if Adam and Eve disobeyed Him, they would open themselves up to His justice.What is God's justice? God's justice is His perspective on sin and His punishment for sin. God hates sin. He is holy, and sin cannot stand in His Presence. Moreover, God punishes sin because it violates His holiness and goodness. All who participate in sin place themselves under the verdict of God's judgment. And God's judgment for sin is eternal separation from Him in a place of everlasting torment. In other words, HELL. Hell is a real place, and you don't want to go there. When He was on earth, Jesus spoke more about Hell than He did about Heaven. Let's look at some verses on Hell:Romans 6: 23 - "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."Matthew 25: 41 - "Then he [God] will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." You see, my friend, Hell was not prepared for man, only for the devil and his angels. But the man who rejects God will go to Hell.Revelation 20: 15 - "And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."One of Satan's craftiest lies in our age has been to convince people there is no hell. After all, as the argument goes, why would a good God send people to Hell?To be clear, my friend, God does not send anyone to Hell. People send themselves to Hell. How? By rejecting Jesus Christ as the One Who died and rose from the dead to save them so that they could escape Hell and go to Heaven. If one rejects the very Savior Who could save him the only one who could save him, there i sno other way to save him. Don't make this same mistake. Choose life now by accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord.

November 23, 2024 Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Bible Teacher, Novelist, and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Saturday, November 23, 2024, and this is episode #23 in Series 2024. This episode is titled, “Are You a Good Person?" If asked that question, most people today would say "Yes, I am a good person." Perhaps you are one of these people. Perhaps you consider yourself a good person because you've never killed anyone, nor ever punched anyone in the face, nor ever hurt an animal—or some such reason. Perhaps you would tell me that you're nice to people or that you let people be who they are. I would then reply, "Have you ever taken the Good Test?"What is the Good Test? The Good Test is a powerful test that identifies whether or not you are truly a good person. I've posted the link to the test in the show notes at the end of this podcast, and I urge you to take the test.Here are some of the questions you would be asked on the Good Test:__Have you ever lied?__Have you ever stolen anything, no matter how seemingly insignificant, like a paper clip from work?__Have you ever used God's name in vain?__Have you ever lusted sexually or otherwise?How would you answer these questions? If you're like the rest of humanity, you would have to answer "yes" to every question. Why? Because these questions reveal God's definition of "good," and every one of us has violated that definition. You see, my friend, God's standard for good is not the same as man's standard for good. Man creates his own standard for good based on his personal beliefs. Man makes the standard for good a subjective issue when, in reality, it is not at all subjective. It is objective. The standard for good is absolute and is determined by God and God alone. He alone is good. Therefore, He alone has the right and the ability to set the standard for what is good and what is not good.So, what is God's standard for good? We can find His standard for good in the Ten Commandments. If we don't meet the standard for good found in the Ten Commandments, then God does not consider us good. And God's opinion is the only one that matters.Why? Because when we die, we will face God, and He will determine whether we are good or not. If God determines that a person is not good, that person will go to Hell. But if God determines that a person is good, that person will go to Heaven.So how can we know what God will determine about us? How can we know if, when we stand before God—and every person will stand before God when he or she dies—how can we know if God will deem us good and bring us to Heaven or deem us not good and send us to Hell? You may be thinking, "Why would a good God send anyone to hell?"Great question! Here is the answer. Would a good judge let the guilty go free? Of course not! Only a corrupt judge would let the guilty go free? Since God is a good Judge, He has to punish the guilty. He has to punish sin. He cannot look the other way. And He won't.But in addition to being a good Judge, God is also a merciful Judge. Scripture says in 2 Peter 3: 9 that God is not willing for anyone to perish, but for all to come to repentance. Because God knew that man could never pay the price for his sin, God chose to pay the price for man. What amazing love! God loved us so much that He chose to become a man himself so that He could take our place in going to the Cross.You see, my friend, by rights, each one of us should have gone to the Cross ourselves. Each one of us should have been killed for our sin. But not only killed. Each one of us should have gone to Hell for all eternity. But Jesus did all that for us. Why? Because He loved us.When we look at the Ten Commandments, we realize that it is impossible to keep all of them all the time. In fact, the Ten Commandments were given to us to show us how impossible it is for us to keep them, to meet God's standard. Even if we have obeyed every one of the commandments b...

November 16, 2024Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Bible Teacher, Novelist, and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Saturday, November 16, 2024, and this is episode #22 in Series 2024. This episode is titled, “The Truth about Healing."Recently, I was severely criticized for my position on healing. Interestingly, the criticism came not from non-Christians who don't believe in Jesus Christ, but from born-again, Christ-Followers who do. While the criticism troubled me, it troubled me for a reason other than what you might think. I wasn't at all troubled because I was criticized. Jesus warned us believers that criticism would come, and I have certainly had my share over the years. The criticism troubled me because the critics, for whatever reason, were missing out on one of the greatest blessings Jesus Christ died to give all of us. The blessing of healing and health. Whenever a question comes up about a topic, we should go first to the Word of God. The Word of God is like a referee. It alone determines the truth or error of a particular belief or belief system.So let's take a close look at what Jesus Himself said about healing. First, God makes clear in His Word that healing is in the Atonement. The Atonement is the reconciliation between God and humanity that Jesus brought about by dying on the Cross and rising from the dead. Through the Atonement, Jesus paid the price for the forgiveness of our sin and the healing of our bodies. We acknowledge this truth every time we take Holy Communion. The wine represents the Blood of Jesus that earned for us the forgiveness of our sin. The Bread represents the Body of Jesus that paid for our physical healing. Jesus died to save the whole person, not just the spiritual person. Now, God is not only able to heal us; He wants to heal us. And even more than that, He has already healed us. When Jesus took the 39 lashes on His back just before being crucified, He paid for our healing. He took our sickness and disease and, in exchange, gave us His health. Let's look closely at some Scripture verses that reveal this truth: __Matthew 8: 17 NLT - "This fulfilled the word of the Lord through the prophet Isaiah, who said, 'He took our sicknesses and removed our diseases.'” Notice Jesus “took our infirmities” —our sicknesses—and “bare [or "bore" in modern English] our sicknesses” so that we would not have to bear them. __Psalm 103: 2-3 NLT - "Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things He does for me. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases." Notice: God heals ALL our diseases; not some, but ALL. Just as He forgives all of our sins, He heals all of our diseases. Imagine if we believed that God forgives only some of our sins or that He forgives the sins of only some people, but not the sins of all people. I don't know of anyone who believes in that kind of partial forgiveness of sin by God. Yet, that is exactly what we believe about healing. Why would the God Who forgives all sin heal only some sickness?We Christians sometimesdon't think straight. We don't carry their thinking to its logical conclusion but we hold on to tradition or wrong teaching without ever questioning it.Here is another Scripture verse on healing: —-Mark 11: 24 NJKV - "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."Notice: This verse instructs us to believe when we pray, not when we receive the answer to our prayer. If we believe when we pray, then we receive what we prayed for the instant we pray for it. But, the manifestation—or the showing up—of what we prayed for usually comes later. For example, I believe that I receive healing the instant I pray for it, but the healing may not show up in my body until later. Sometimes a lot later. God's will for healing is clear in the verses I cited above, and in many other verses throughout the Sacred...

November 4, 2024Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Bible Teacher, Novelist, and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, November 4, 2024, and this is episode #20 in Series 2024. This episode is titled, "Why Marriages Fail." A little over a week ago, my husband and I celebrated 55 blessed years of marriage. I call those years "blessed" because during our growth as a couple, we discovered the fundamental secret of a fulfilling marriage. If you listen until the end of this podcast, you will learn what that secret is.Young people frequently tell me that they are afraid to get married. When I ask them why, their responses always reveal an underlying fear. Here are some of those fears:1__Fear of marrying the wrong person.2__Fear of divorce.3__Fear of commitment.4__Fear of the unknown.5__Fear of interference with one's career.I could go on and on with other reasons, but the five I named above are the most common.Interestingly, all of the reasons these precious young people give me include the word fear. When young people observe the marriages of their parents or their friends' parents, they generally do not like what they see. And, in my opinion—and perhaps in yours as well—this is a sad situation, indeed.So what's going on?Here are some reasons I've discovered from 55 years of marriage and 25 years as a Life Coach helping others in their marriages:Reason #1. Selfishness. When we get married, we usually think, first and foremost, what's in it for me. Sure, we say we want the best for our spouse—and we do—but when the rubber meets the road, and we find ourselves in a situation where we have to sacrifice what we want for the good of our spouse, we often sing a different tune. Reason #2. A Misunderstanding of the Meaning of True Love. Few people understand the true meaning of love. If asked, most would define love as a feeling. But the truth is that love, in its essence, is not a feeling. It is a Person, and that Person is Jesus Christ. Moreover, treating our spouse with love is a decision, not a feeling. When we use feelings as the arbiter of love, we will always come up short. How many times have you heard a spouse say, "I don't love him anymore. I don't love her anymore." The truth is that spouse does not want to love his or her mate. That spouse wants to love only himself or herself.3. Failure to prioritize your marriage relationship. We live in a culture of wrong priorities. We focus on the least important things rather than on the most important ones. For a marriage to succeed, we must put our relationship with our spouse above every other relationship except our relationship with God. This includes children. Far too many wives put their children above their husbands, and far too many husbands put their jobs above their wives. Both attitudes lead to failure in marriage.Failure is not only defined as divorce. Failure in marriage can be displayed in a growing distance between husband and wife, in poor communication, and, worst of all, in apathy. Remember this: No relationship, especially the marriage relationship, is static. It will either move forward or backward. The choice is up to you. Marriage is a crucible in which we discover who we really are at the core of our being. It is the place where we learn what our true character is like. Marriage exposes those dark places of our hearts that reveal, bottomline, that we want our own way. God gives us our spouse to polish us, to remove the dross, and to make His purpose in our lives shine through. On the other side of the coin, marriage is also the place where we discover depths of love and sacrifice that we never knew we were capable of. When a man and a woman join hearts and minds in marriage, they can do anything. They become a force for good in an evil world. Well, I promised to tell you the secret of a fulfilling marriage. So here it is. The secret is so simple that you could easily miss it.

October 21, 2024 Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Bible Teacher, Novelist, and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, October 21, 2024, and this is episode #19 in Series 2024. This episode is titled, “Why Jesus Is the Only Way to Heaven.”Recently, Pope Francis told the world that there is more than one way to Heaven. Well, with all due respect, the pope is wrong.The Holy Scriptures make very clear that there is only one way to Heaven, and that one and only way is through Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself said as much.Let's look at the Gospel of John, chapter 14, verse 6: Jesus was talking with his disciples and was explaining that He would be leaving them soon to prepare a place for them and that He would one day return to take them with Him. He added that they knew the way to the place where He was going. Thomas, one of the twelve Apostles, questioned Jesus: "Lord, we do not know where You are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered Thomas' question with these words: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me." To say that there are many ways to Heaven is to believe a lie. And believing that lie is sending countless numbers of people to Hell. So, I want to set the record straight in this blog post and podcast by explaining why Jesus is the only way to Heaven and why believing in Him is the only way to be saved.In order for Jesus to be able to save us, He had to be two things:1) He had to be God.2) He had to be a man.Jesus Christ was both.But why did the Savior of humanity have to be both God and man?1) The Savior of humanity had to be God because only God could satisfy the wrath of God. Sin is an offense against a perfect, infinite God and demands the payment of a perfect, infinite price. Only someone who was perfect and infinite was qualified to pay that price. Jesus alone was qualified. No other human being fit the bill because no other human being was perfect. Not Buddha. Not Mohammed. Not Hare Krishna. Not anyone but Jesus. 2) The Savior of humanity also had to be man. He had to be human because He had to represent the human race He was saving. In order to represent them, He had to be one of them in order to stand in their place. No other so-called god gave his life to save his followers. Only Jesus Christ did.So, let's put our heads together and do a little reasoning together, shall we? In other words, let's have a rational discussion about why believing in Jesus is the only way for anyone to be saved.In an outstanding article titled "3 Reasons Why Jesus is the Only Way," Dr. Tim Stratton says this: "There are three fundamental Laws of Logic that are always required in rational discussion." We will use these laws of logic in our discussion. These laws are:1) The Law of Identity2) The Law of the Excluded Middle3) The Law of Non-Contradiction.The Law of Identity states that a thing is what it is. In other words, a thing has specific qualities that make it what it is. For example, a square is a square because it has four equal sides. If it had three equal sides, it would not be a square. It would be a triangle.The Law of the Excluded Middle, attributed to the Greek philosopher Aristotle, explains that a a statement that asserts or denies something is either true or its negation is true, thereby eliminating a third option. In other words, either a statement is true or its negation is true. There is no third option, no middle ground. For example, I can say that water is wet or water is not wet. Water is wet is a statement that asserts, and water is not wet is a statement that denies or negates. It has to be one or the other. There is no middle ground because water cannot be half wet and half dry.Applied to Jesus, we could say that He either rose from the dead or He didn't. There is no middle ground. He could not have half risen from the dead and half not risen from the dead.

October 14, 2024Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Story Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, October 14, 2024, and this is episode #18 in Series 2024. This episode is titled, "Are You Broken-Hearted?"A few months ago, I thought that the Lord was finished with this blog and podcast, but He had other plans. So here we are, happy to be back with all of our wonderful readers and listeners. Today I want to discuss the topic of broken-heartedness. Have you noticed that not many people are smiling these days? As I go about my daily life, I am struck with the looks of fear, hopelessness, and despair on the faces of those who cross my path. My heart goes out to them, because I know from personal experience that life does not have to be this way. You see, my friend, I used to be there myself. There was a time in my life when everything looked bleak. I felt stuck in a rut, with no way to get out. Nothing was going right. Not my job. Not my finances. Not my relationships. I was what you would call a "sorry case."So, what changed? Thanks for asking. I'd love to tell you. :)What happened was that I had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ.Now, before you stop reading or listening hear me out, please. Since you asked to know what changed, it's the polite thing to do on your part to wait for the answer to your question. After all, I'm taking the time to answer you. And to answer you gladly, I might add. :)Yes, I had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ. Okay, Dr. MaryAnn. What exactly do you mean? Are you telling me that You met Jesus in person? I mean, did you bump into Him on the sidewalk? Did you run into Him at the library? At the grocery storet? What exactly do you mean?I mean that I met Jesus in a spiritual encounter that took place inside me for the first time in my life. And I have never been the same.Where did I meet Jesus?I met Him in the family room at a moment when I was at the end of my rope emotionally. How did I meet Jesus?Through a TV show being broadcast by Billy Graham.Holding the remote in my hand that night, I flipped through channels and found nothing that interested me. When I came upon Billy Graham, I decided to watch him because there was nothing better to watch, frankly. Plus, I had a certain respect for Billy Graham and thought it wouldn't hurt to watch and listen.Little did I know that during that TV program, I would meet Jesus Christ Himself.So, how did it happen?It happened when Mr. Graham looked right at me through the TV camera and spoke to my broken heart. He said words about me that He could not possibly know unless God had revealed them to him. He described exactly how I was feeling and the situation I was in. He saw my broken heart.Then Mr. Graham said something amazing. He said that Jesus was the answer to a broken heart. Since Jesus made the human heart, He was the only one who could fix it. Was I willing to have Jesus fix my broken heart?That pivotal night, almost 55 years ago, I told Jesus I was willing for Him to fix my broken heart. And do you know what?He did! So, if your heart is broken today, let Jesus Christ fix it. He is the only one who can. And how do you do that? By inviting Him into your life and receiving Him as your personal Savior and Lord. Pray this simple prayer with me now:Lord Jesus, I come to You just as I am. I admit that I am a sinner in need of Your mercy and grace. I repent of my sin, and I ask You to come into my life to be my Savior and Lord and to fix my broken heart. Thank You, Lord. I pray this prayer in Your Name. Amen.If you prayed this prayer sincerely from your heart, you are now a born-again child of God. Write to me at drmaryannn@maryanndiorio.com, and I will send you a free booklet titled After You're Born Again.In case you are not aware, I write heart-mending fiction that deals with the deepest issues of life. In my stories you will find characters just like you who struggle with what loo...

https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/2024_05_25_How_to_Get_on_God_s_Bad_Side.mp3 May 25, 2024Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Saturday, May 25, 2024, and this is episode #15 in series 2024. This episode is titled, “How to Get On God's Bad Side.” If you want to get on God's bad side, oppose Israel. When one opposes Israel, one opposes God Himself.To oppose Israel is not to avoid honest discussions about her people, her policies, and her purpose. It is not to refrain from asking questions about her past or her future. To oppose Israel is to speak against what God has spoken about her.On the other side of the coin, supporting Israel does not mean supporting everything she does or stands for. To support Israel simply means to agree with what God says about Israel. Nothing more. Nothing less.So, to put it succinctly, opposing Israel means to oppose whatever God says about Israel, and supporting Israel means supporting whatever God says about Israel.So, what does God say about Israel? To find out, we need to go to the Bible. In that great, best-selling book of all time, God does the following:1) He makes it very clear that Israel belongs to Him. For example, in the Book of Joel 1: 6, God says this about Israel: "For a nation has invaded My land, powerful and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and its fangs are the fangs of a lioness." And in Genesis 35: 10-12, we read this: "And God said to him, 'Though your name is Jacob, you will no longer be called Jacob. Instead, your name will be Israel.' So God named him Israel. And God told him, 'I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation—even a company of nations—shall come from you, and kings shall descend from you. The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you.'"2) God makes it very clear that those who try to destroy Israel will themselves be destroyed.Joel 3: 2 gives us the following warning: "I will gather the armies of the world into the valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will judge them for harming my people, my special possession, for scattering my people among the nations, and for dividing up my land." This event is known as the Battle of Armageddon and will occur in the not-too-distant future, at the end of the seven-year Tribulation. When God speaks about dividing up His land, He is referring to the dangerous attempts of this present day to create a two-state solution to the problems in the Middle East. A two-state solution flies in the face of God's promise to Israel. A two-state solution will result in a dividing of the land of every nation that promotes a two-state solution.Here in the United States, we have a major fault line right down the middle of our country. Tremors have been increasing in that region, to the point that geologists are concerned about a major earthquake that will destroy America's heartland. If this happens—and I believe it will—America's land will be divided in two. As long as our nation supports a two-state solution, we are in danger.A little research will reveal that every time America pushed for a two-state solution, that push was followed by major disasters. I have attached a PDF file titled Land-for-Peace Disasters, compiled by my husband, that lists the disasters that occurred here in America after each push by a United States administration toward a two-state solution. It is eye-opening. Hebrews 10: 31 warns us that “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” To go against God is to seal your own destruction. Those who seek to destroy Israel will one day fall into the hands of the living God unless they repent.If you are one who opposes Israel, I urge you to reconsider your position in light of what God says about Israel in the Bible.

https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/2024_05_18_Israel_God_s_Alarm_Clock.mp3 May 18, 2024 Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Saturday, May 18, 2024, and this is episode #14 in series 2024. This episode is titled, "Israel: God's Alarm Clock."For the past several months, the eyes of the world have been on the Middle East, and, in particular, Israel. For those of us who follow Jesus Christ and are students of the Bible, this is not a surprise. The Lord predicted that this would be the case shortly before His return to remove His Church from the earth in the soon-to-come, cataclysmic event called the Rapture.If we do not understand the events transpiring in Israel, we will not understand what God is doing in these last days. As one writer said, "Israel is God's program for what He is doing in the world."For example, in Zechariah 12: 1-9, the Bible says this: "This message concerning the fate of Israel came from the LORD: 'This message is from the LORD, who stretched out the heavens, laid the foundations of the earth, and formed the human spirit. I will make Jerusalem like an intoxicating drink that makes the nearby nations stagger when they send their armies to besiege Jerusalem and Judah. On that day I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock. All the nations will gather against it to try to move it, but they will only hurt themselves. "On that day,' says the LORD, 'I will cause every horse to panic and every rider to lose his nerve. I will watch over the people of Judah, but I will blind all the horses of their enemies. And the clans of Judah will say to themselves, "The people of Jerusalem have found strength in the LORD of Heaven's Armies, their God." "On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a flame that sets a woodpile ablaze or like a burning torch among sheaves of grain. They will burn up all the neighboring nations right and left, while the people living in Jerusalem remain secure. "The LORD will give victory to the rest of Judah first, before Jerusalem, so that the people of Jerusalem and the royal line of David will not have greater honor than the rest of Judah. On that day the LORD will defend the people of Jerusalem; the weakest among them will be as mighty as King David! And the royal descendants will be like God, like the angel of the LORD who goes before them! For on that day I will begin to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. “Then I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the family of David and on the people of Jerusalem.'" Jerusalem is still "like an intoxicating drink" in our day, or, as one translation calls her, "a stumbling block." A move is afoot to divide the city of Jerusalem—and Israel itself—in two in what is commonly called a two-state solution. This is a disastrous move as it is completely contrary to God's will. In the Book of Joel, chapter 3, verses 1 and 2, the Lord pronounces this serious warning to the nations of the earth:"At the time of those events,” says the LORD, “when I restore the prosperity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather the armies of the world into the valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will judge them for harming my people, my special possession, for scattering my people among the nations, and for dividing up my land." God warns the nations of the earth that if they divide up His land, He will divide up theirs.This warning has ominous implications for the United States. The current administration is supporting and pushing for a two-state solution. God is not pleased. Have you noticed the serious storms that we have been experiencing since that decision? Have you noticed the many serious catastrophes that have assailed our land, more than usual? If you want to do a fascinating study, research all the disasters that have occurred in America immediately after our administra...

May 11, 2024 Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Saturday, May 11, 2024, and this is episode #13 in Season 2024. This episode is titled “The One-Way Street.”A widespread notion has taken hold of the world-at-large that there are many ways to Heaven. Friend, hear me when I tell you that this is a blatant lie that is leading countless people straight into the pit of Hell. Just as you must drive in only one direction on a one-way street or else you will be punished by the law, so must you take a one-way street to Heaven or else you will be punished forever. That one way street is Jesus Christ.The problem with the world today is that we think we can make our own rules without any consequences. That, too, is a lie. God has already made the rules, and if we try to change them, we will be in big trouble.As in, going to Hell.So, you may be thinking, "Dr. MaryAnn, who are you to tell me that I can't make my own rules? I can choose whatever way I want to get to Heaven. After all, it's my life."To answer your question as to who I am, "I am no one, really, to tell you what to do. I'm not the one making the rules. God has already made the rules. He is God, and I am not. My job is simply to warn you about the rules that God has already made—and that are unchangeable, by the way—so that you will not end up in Hell and suffer torment there forever.All that I do, then, is to inform you about the rules so that you can lead a happy, successful, peaceful life and so that you will not go to Hell when you die. You might further ask, "What's it to you whether I go to Hell or not?" My friend, you may find this difficult to understand, but I recognize you as a masterpiece created by God. A person God wants to make His child, to be a part of His family forever and ever. Because I love God, I love you, and I do not want to see you suffer, especially suffer the eternal punishment of Hell.Let me put it like this: God created you for fellowship with Himself. Satan hates that truth and wants to destroy you so that you will never experience that fellowship with the wonderful, awesome God Who made you. You see, Satan hates God and everything God has made, especially people. And he hates you! So Satan throws lies your way—like the lie that there are many ways to Heaven—to get you off course and going in the wrong direction, away from God. Now, you may be wondering how I know there is only one way to Heaven. I know on the authority of the words of Jesus Christ Himself, the Son of God Who cannot lie. Jesus said this in the New Testament Book of John, chapter 14, verse 6: "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." Did you hear that? Jesus said, "I am the Way to the Father. God the Father lives in Heaven. Since Jesus is the only way to the Father, Jesus is the only Way to Heaven." But because God loves you, He never forces you to do anything. He gave you a free will so that you could be—well, free! Why did God make you to be free? Because He wants you to love Him because you want to love Him, not because He is forcing you to love Him. You see, forced love is not love at all. It is coercion.Would you want your spouse or children or best friend to love you because you forced them to? Of course not! That wouldn't be love at all. You want them to love you because they want to love you.So it is with God. Because God the Father loves you, He has prepared a special place for you in Heaven, where He lives. But there is only one way to get there. That way is through Jesus Christ.Now, you may be asking, why does Jesus have to be the only way I can get to Heaven?Here is the short version: When our first parents, Adam and Eve, were created, they were connected to God. God gave them dominion over the earth. But when our first Mom and Dad sinned by disobeying God, they were disconnected from Him and forfeited that d...

with Dr. MaryAnn Diorio https://content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/Dr_Dom_s_Testimony_of_Healing_from_Cancer.mp3 May 4, 2024 Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Saturday, May 3, 2024, and this is episode #12 in Season 2024. This episode is titled “Dr. Dom's Testimony of Healing.” Since we recorded this message "off the cuff," it is in podcast format only. You will find the link below:Dr. Dom's Testimony of Healing from Cancer To accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, pray the simple prayer below: Lord Jesus, I come to You just as I am. I acknowledge that I am a sinner, and I ask Your forgiveness for violating Your will and Your Word. I invite You into my life to be my Savior and Lord. Thank You for saving me. Amen. If you sincerely prayed this prayer, you are now a born-again child of God. Welcome to the family of God! Write down today's date. It is your spiritual birthday and the day on which you received the birthday gift of salvation that Jesus died to give you. Then write to me at drmaryann@maryanndiorio.com. I would like to send you a free PDF booklet titled After You're Born Again to help you grow in your walk with Christ.Until next time, remember that God loves you just as you are and just where you are and that He will help you to keep on winning with the Word!

April 27, 2024Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Saturday, April 27, 2024, and this is episode #11 in Season 2024. This episode is titled “What Will Happen to You after You Die?"There's an old saying that goes like this: Only two things in life are certain--Death and Taxes. With apologies to the late, great Jane Austen, it is a truth universally acknowledged that all men will one day die. Despite current endeavors in trans-humanism—which is the merging of man and machine—man in his physical state is not immortal. One day his body will die. Plain and simple.While people may grapple with the fear of death, they usually don't think about what happens after death. In this week's podcast, I would like to explore this very topic of what happens after physical death and why we should be concerned.Let's first take a look at what a human being really is. You, my friend, are an amazing creation of God. Contrary to what the evolutionists may tell you, you did not evolve from lower forms of life. You were created directly by God Himself, fashioned by His heart and His hands for His purpose. You are not here by accident. God intended for you to be here at this moment in time and at your particular place in time. Whether your parents wanted you or not, God wanted you. Psalm 27: 10 says this: "Even if my father and mother abandon me, the LORD will hold me close."Now, when God made you, He made you in His image. This means that you are a reflection of Him. How? Well, God is a three-part Being: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Since you are made in God's image, you, too, are a three-part being: spirit, soul, and body. Your spirit is who you are at the core. The real you. Your soul comprises your intellect or mind, your emotions, and your will. All of this is housed in your body, which I call your "earth suit." When God first created man, man's spirit was connected to God. When man's spirit was connected to God, man enjoyed an abundant life of peace, joy, and love in a place called the Garden of Eden. But when man disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden by eating the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, man's spirit was severed from God. Man had already known good. But now, after his sin, he began to know evil as well. And, sad to say , man has known evil ever since. Man's sin put him in a major dilemma. His spirit was now separated from God, and there was no way for man to connect himself back to God. Because of his sin, man was now corrupted and imperfect. God, of course, was pure and perfect. As an imperfect being, man could not reconnect himself to a perfect Being.So what could man do?Nothing! Absolutely nothing! Man could never reconnect himself back to God. Yet, without that reconnection, man was totally helpless, lost, and damned to an eternity of punishment in hell. For his sin had to be paid for, and man could not pay for it.Yet, something amazing happened. Something completely unexpected. God the Father loved man so much in spite of man's sin that God sent His only-begotten Son Jesus Christ to reconnect man back to Himself. That is what the Cross is all about, my friend. Jesus, the perfect God, gave His life as the punishment for your sin and mine. In other words, Jesus took the rap for our sin.It would be like someone going to the electric chair for you today. Who would do that? No one I know. But Jesus Christ did it for you and for me. You see, sin always has punishment attached to it. Sin is a violation of God's holiness, and God not only will not tolerate sin, but he also cannot tolerate it. He is holy, and sin cannot stand in His Presence.Well, since Adam was now corrupted by sin, he was in no position to pay the price for sin. Someone had to do it for him. And that Someone was Jesus Christ.This is the reason Jesus came to earth as a human being.

April 20, 2024 https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/2024_04_20_The_Scoffers_Are_Coming.mp3 Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Saturday, April 20, 2024, and this is episode #10 in Season 2024. This episode is titled “The Scoffers Are Coming!"In 2 Peter 3: 3, the Bible predicts the following: "In the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires." The same prediction is repeated in the Book of Jude 1: 18: "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.”So, what is a scoffer? A scoffer is a person who scoffs. And what does it mean to scoff? According to Merriam-Webster, to scoff means "to show contempt by derisive acts or language." The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language states that to scoff means "to show or express derision or scorn."So, a scoffer is a person who shows contempt toward another person or belief by expressing ridicule and scorn against that person or belief. Another word for scoffer is mocker. In short, a scoffer or a mocker makes fun of a person or a belief with which he doesn't agree.The Book of Proverbs describes a scoffer like this: “'Scoffer' is the name of the arrogant, haughty man who acts with arrogant pride." (Proverbs 21: 24) So a scoffer is also arrogant and filled with pride. When the Bible speaks of scoffers, it is referring to people who make fun of the Bible and anything related to God. More specifically, in our day, the term scoffer refers to someone who makes fun of the Bible's teaching about the Rapture. In case you are not familiar with the term Rapture, it refers to an imminent, stunning, and catastrophic event during which Jesus Christ Himself will appear in the clouds to call up from the earth those who are His true followers. First Thessalonians 4: 16-17 describes the Rapture like this:"For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever." There are many signs today that the Rapture is imminent. Although we do not know the exact date, we do see very clear indications that the Rapture will occur very soon, perhaps even this year.Yet, there are many who are making fun of this Biblical prediction. In fact, as I read in our opening Bible verses, the Bible even predicted that there would be people in the last days who would make fun of those of us who believe and proclaim that the Rapture will occur.But God says to the scoffers, "Be forewarned! You will be punished unless you repent of your scoffing." In Acts 13: 41 NLT, God is speaking through the Apostle Paul: “‘Look, you scoffers, wonder and perish, for I am going to do something in your days that you would never believe, even if someone told you.'”The Bible uses the word "perish" in this verse. That means "die." God is warning scoffers that if they do not repent, they will die. In other words, they will be condemned to Hell.The Apostle Peter wrote this in 2 Peter 3: 3-4 NLT:"Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. They will say, 'What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.'"We are seeing Peter's words coming to pass right now in our very day. I personally have had people laugh and say to me, "What do you mean Jesus is coming again? You Christians have been saying that for years, yet nothing has changed."Such people are scoffers.

Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Saturday, April 14, 2024, and this is episode #9 in Season 2024. This episode is titled “Why You Need a Savior."Before we begin, I'd like to thank my awesome husband Dr. Dom once again for being such a great guest on my three recent podcasts. Feedback on the interviews has been amazing. If you haven't yet listened to my interviews with Dr. Dom, you can check them out at the links in the show notes below:Interview #1: The RaptureInterview #2: The Great American Solar EclipseInteriew #3: Is the Bible True?I'd also like to welcome all my new subscribers from around the world. Thank you so much for joining us here on Winning with the Word. We value you very much and trust that we will be a blessing to you. And now on to today's podcast.If you're at all like me, you grew up hearing the dictum, "There's no free lunch!" Our parents used to say that over and over again to teach us that we had to work our way through life. And, to a great extent, they were right. Nothing comes to us free of charge. Either we have to pay for it or someone else does.Take, for example, a college education. Some parents pay for their children's college education; others do not. In my case, I paid for my own college education by working as a waitress and a store clerk during my college years. This made me appreciate my education all the more. But, it also taught me that it it were to be, it was up to me.While this attitude—an attitude I call a "works mentality"—served me well in making my way through life, it did not serve me well at all when it came to the salvation of my soul. Why not? Because when I learned that I did not have to work to be saved—that I did not have to work to get into Heaven—the concept was difficult for me to accept. After all, "There's no free lunch," right? And, if it's to be, it's up to me. You see, I had been brought up in the Roman Catholic Church that taught that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and that He died to take the punishment for my sins. So far, so good. But this church also taught me that I had to add to what Jesus did for me by performing my own good works. His sacrifice was not enough for me to get into Heaven. My good works would make up the difference. In other words, I needed to help Jesus earn my way to Heaven by doing good works because His way was not enough.Jesus plus Church Tradition. That's what we were taught in the Catholic Church. Now, things may have changed today, but that's what I was taught as I was being brought up in the Catholic Church. So I spent my life trying to do all the good works I could, to the point of wearing myself out. One day, it occurred to me that I might never do enough good works to get into Heaven. So I asked a priest how and when I would know if I had done enough good works to earn my entrance into Heaven. His reply brought me no comfort at all. He said, "After you die, you will know if you've done enough good works to get into Heaven."Not a helpful thing for him to say. My tacit reply was, "Thanks alot! At that point, if I've fallen short of doing enough good works to get into Heaven, it will be too late to do anything about it."Moreover, another thought arose in my mind: If I can get into heaven by doing good works, then Jesus died for nothing. The thought startled me, the thought of His having gone through all that suffering for nothing. And it got me thinking hard and long. Certainly Jesus would not have died for nothing. He's too smart to do that. After all, He's God.So I began to explore what exactly happened when Jesus died on the Cross. And here is what I discovered more than half a century ago:__Man was created by God to live forever with Him.__God gave man a free will so that man could make choices. Man could choose either God's way or his own way.__Man made the fatal choice to choose his own way when he disobeyed ...

April 6, 2024Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of the Winning with the Word podcast. Today is Saturday, April 6, 2024, and this is episode #8 in Season 2024. This episode is titled “Is the Bible True?” Today I am delighted to welcome back my awesome husband of 54 years, Dr. Dominic Diorio, for this third and last episode in our series on the end times. If you haven't listened to my first two interviews with Dr. Dom—the first one on the Rapture and the second one on the upcoming April 8th eclipse—I encourage you to do so. You will find the links in the show notes below.So, welcome back, Honey! It's great to have you on the podcast again. I might have to make you a regular. :)We have had such good listener feedback from our previous two broadcasts, and I know that today's conversation will give you even more very important information to help you understand and prepare for what lies ahead in the world. And, yes. We know a lot about what lies ahead. Why? Because God has revealed it to us in the Bible. But the problem is that most people don't read the Bible and most people don't believe it is true.So let's begin our discussion with Dr. Dom with the most obvious question: Is the Bible true?NOTE: In the show notes to the podcast, Dr. Dom discusses reasons that prove the Bible is true. Check out the podcast at:Is the Bible True?If you have not yet accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, do so now. Pray this simple prayer with me:Lord Jesus, I come to You just as I am. I admit that I am a sinner in need of your mercy and grace. I repent of my sins and receive You now as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving me and for setting me free. In Your Name I pray. Amen.If you sincerely prayed this prayer, you are now a born-again child of God. Welcome to the Family. Write down today's date, for it is the date of your spiritual birthday. And write to me at drmaryann@maryanndiorio.com. I would like to send you a free PDF booklet titled After You're Born Again to help you get started in your exciting walk with Jesus.Before we close, don't forget to check out my book titled The Iron Saint. Based on the concepts of the iron man traithlon, The Iron Saint is a manual for preparing for the difficult challenges of these last days. It is available in both print and ebook formats on my website bookstore at maryanndiorio.com or on Amazon. Get your copy now and give one to your pastor as well. I want to thank God that Winning with the Word now reaches listeners in 80 countries around the world. If you are listening to this podcast from a country outside the United States, please let me know by writing to me at drmaryann@maryanndiorio.com.Remember that God loves you just as you are and just where you are and that He will help you to keep on Winning with the Word! _____________________________________________________Copyright 2024 by MaryAnn Diorio, PhD. All Rights Reserved.

https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/2024_04_01_Interview_with_Dr_Dom_on_the_2024_Eclipse.mp3 Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of the Winning with the Word podcast. Today is Monday, April 1, 2024, and this is episode #7 in Season 2024. This episode is titled “The April 8, 2024, Great American Eclipse and What It Could Mean.” Today I am delighted to welcome back my awesome husband, Dr. Dominic Diorio, as we explore another exciting aspect of these end times in which we live. We had such good feedback from last week's broadcast, and I know that today's conversation will give you even more very important information on what is going on in our world from a Biblical perspective. So, with that, I am so happy to welcome back my amazing husband of 54 years, Dr. Dom Diorio. SHOW NOTES __In this episode, we discuss the upcoming April 8, 2024, Great American Solar Eclipse. __Useful links: What Is the Biblical Significance of the Solar Eclipse? Do They Know Something We Don't? Decoding Heaven's Message: Spiritual Meanings of the 2024 Eclipse #solar eclipse#eclipse#2024solareclipse If you have not yet accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, do so now. Remember that God loves you just as you are and just where you are and that He will help you to keep on Winning with the Word! _______________________________Copyright 2024 by MaryAnn Diorio, PhD. All Rights Reserved.

https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/2024_Interview_with_Dr_Dom_Diorio.mp3 Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of the Winning with the Word podcast. Today is Monday, March 25, 2024, and this is episode #6 in Season 2024. This episode is titled "An Interview with Dr. Dom Diorio on the Rapture."

by Dr. MaryAnn Diorio March 18, 2024Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of the Winning with the Word podcast. Today is Monday, March 18, 2024, and this is episode #5 in Season 2024. This episode is titled "The Event That Will Soon Turn the World Upside Down."If you're like me, you can feel it in your bones. Something big is about to happen, but most people don't know exactly what that is.When talking with others, I find that I am not alone in my feelings. Others also feel that the world is on the edge of a cliff, and that before long, it's going to fall over and fall off and break apart at the seams.So, if you're feeling this way, you are not alone. But you may not be able to pinpoint why you feel this way. So let me give you a rational explanation. A rational explanation found in the Bible. Now, before you tune me out, let me ask you a question. Have you ever read the Bible? If not, why would you dismiss it? If I've never tasted a certain dish, how can I say I don't like it?To reject the Bible without even reading it is not a sign of intelligence. I daresay you consider yourself intelligent. If you do, then read the Bible before you give an opinion on it.That said, I believe that when you read the Bible you will be amazed at what you have been missing all these years. You will wish you had read it sooner, especially since the Bible predicts everything that you are now reading in the morning newspaper headlines and watching on the evening news.Specifically, here is what I'm talking about:1) We are fast heading toward a cashless economic system as world banks prepare us for digital currency. This digital currency system will lead to the Mark of the Beast that was predicted in the Bible in Revelation 13. Read it for yourself.2) The world is fast moving to a one-world government, called the New World Order. We've all heard this term already. This was predicted in the Bible in the Book of Daniel, chapters 2 and 7, and the Book of Revelation, chapter 13. 3) Every day we hear new rumors of war as nations fight against nations. This was predicted in the Bible in Matthew 24: 7. 4) On the news we watch videos of criminals looting stores without consequence, as the law is no longer upheld. This was predicted in the Bible in Matthew chapter 24, verse 12.5) In court rooms across the country, we watch criminals being released without bail for crimes that used to earn them life imprisonment. This was predicted in the Bible in Ecclesiastes 5: 8, written by King Solomon in the 9th century B.C., and in Isaiah 59: 14, written by the prophet Isaiah in the 8th century B.C.Are you getting my point? Everything we see happening in the world around us today was predicted in the Bible, some things thousands of years ago. So why am I telling you this?I'm telling you this because there are events predicted in the Bible that have not yet happened but will soon happen just as surely as earlier predicted events have already happened, and as surely as today's events predicted in the Bible are happening. What are these future events?Here are the most salient of them:1) The Rapture of the Church. You may have heard of the Rapture. The Rapture is that future event, that may likely occur in the fall of this year, during which Jesus Christ Himself will appear in the clouds and remove from the earth all those who truly follow Him. This event was predicted in the Apostle Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians, chapter 4, verses 16 and 17. This is what it says:"For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever." The Bible is clear that Jesus will return in the clouds to remove from the ea...

by Dr. MaryAnn DiorioHello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, March 11, 2024, and this is Episode #4 in Season 2024. This episode is titled, "The Power of Faith: How Faith Is Released."This will be our last episode of four episodes on the topic of faith for now. So let's dive right in.In our previous three podcasts, we discussed what faith is not, what faith is, and how to receive faith. If you have not listened to those podcasts, I encourage you to go back and do so. They will help you better understand today's teaching on how faith is released.So, how is faith released? Bottomline, faith is released through our words. Yes, our words.Romans 10: 9 states this: " . . . if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."Two key words jump out at us in this verse: Confess and Believe.To confess means to declare. When we confess our sins, we declare them before God. The word confess comes from the popular Latin word confessare, which means to declare or admit.The second word that stands out is believe. When we declare, we must believe what we declare. And we must believe it in our heart. If we believe it only in our head, then that is not faith. It is only mental assent.For example, I can declare that I am healed by the stripes of Jesus, but if I don't really believe it deep down, I will not experience the healing in my body. Or I can believe that God will provide me with a job to pay my bills, but if I don't really believe it deep down where I live, in my heart, then I will not experience God's provision.If we speak something we do not believe, it is not faith. Faith is released when we declare something we believe in our heart. Mark 11: 23-24 says this: "For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore, I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."Notice, when you pray believe. When you pray believe that you receive them, and you will have them.In this verse, we also see the necessity of words in releasing faith. Whoever SAYS. Those things which he SAYS. He will have whatever he SAYS. Our words have great power. Why are words so essential in releasing our faith? Here are a few reasons:1. God created the universe using words. In Genesis 1, over and over again, we read: "And God said...and there was. And God said...and there was. And God said...and there was." We are made in God's image. Therefore, we too create with our words. If we continually speak negative words over ourselves and our situation, we will create miserable lives for ourselves. If we speak positive, Scriptural words over ourselves and our situation, we will create beautiful lives.2. Words are the containers of either life or death. Proverbs 18: 21 tells us that "Death and life are in the power of the tongue."Let me ask you. What are you creating with your words? Are you creating life, or are you creating death?Are you saying, "My allergies are getting worse" Or are you saying, "Jesus has healed me of all allergies." First of all, stop saying my allergies. If you are in Christ, they don't belong to you. He took them from you when He allowed Himself to be beaten with 39 stripes on his back. So don't take ownership of anything that is not yours.Let me tell you a little story. And this is a true story. Many years ago a woman was suffering from a terrible pain in her neck. And she tried everything to get rid of this pain. She went to all kinds of doctors, but nothing helped. Finally, she went to a Christian doctor who understood the power of words. And as he listened to her complain and describe what she was feeling,

March 4, 2024Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, March 4, 2024, and this is Episode #3 in Season 2024. This episode is titled, "The Power of Faith - Part 3."During our previous two podcasts, we discussed what faith is, what it is not, and the two kinds of faith. If you did not listen to those podcasts, you may wish to go back to do so before listening to this one.Today, we are going to explore how we obtain faith in the first place and then, after we've obtained it, how we develop it or strengthen it.To start off, if you are born again, you already have the faith of God residing within you. This is one of the perks of accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. In Romans 12: 3, the Bible says this: "God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." (Emphasis mine). The measure of faith the Bible describes here is supernatural faith.If you are not born again, you do not have this special kind of supernatural faith. You have only natural faith, which won't get you very far in receiving from God. So, if you want supernatural faith, get born again. I will tell you how at the end of this podcast. Now, let's get back to the measure of supernatural faith that God gives to those who receive Jesus as Savior. Notice that the Bible says that God gives THE measure of faith, not A measure of faith. What is the difference?THE measure of faith means that God gives the same amount of faith to everyone who gets born again. He does not give more faith to one person than to another. Just as God gives every human being the same number of muscles, so He gives to every born-again believer the same amount of faith.So, now that we've established that each of us who is born again receives the same amount of faith, the next question is how do we develop that faith? How do we make it stronger?Again, back to our analogy of the body's muscles. How do we make our muscles stronger? By exercising them, right? Well, that is precisely how we make our faith stronger. By exercising it.And how do we exercise our faith? Through trials and temptations.God allows trials and temptations into our lives to give us the opportunity to exercise our faith and, thereby, to strengthen it. Why do we need to strengthen our faith? Because the Bible tells us in Hebrews 11: 6 that without faith, it is impossible to please God. WOW! That's a pretty strong statement. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. So, if we do not have faith, we cannot please God. That's quite a sobering thought, isn't it?Well, why should we want to please God?First of all, because we love Him. When we love someone, we want to please that person, don't we?Second, we need faith to receive from God what we need from Him. In Mark 11: 24, we read this: "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."Third, we need to receive from God not only in order to have what we need, but also to bless others. The Lord told Abraham back in Genesis 22: 17-18 that He would bless Abraham so that Abraham and his descendants would bless the earth. We are the spiritual descendants of Abraham, and God wants to us us to bless the world.But how can we bless the world with God's blessings if we ourselves have not received God's blessings?The answer is, we need to have faith to receive God's blessings so that we can then bless others.This takes us back to HOW DO WE GET FAITH? We get faith by hearing. Romans 10: 17 tells us this: "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." Faith comes through hearing, specifically hearing God's Word.But, interestingly, faith in anything comes by hearing it. If we hear something over and over again, we will eventually believe what we hear, even if what we hear is a lie. That is exactly what's happening in our world today. People are hearing lies repeated again and again,

This is Part 2 in our series title The Power of Faith.

by Dr. MaryAnn Diorio Today I am beginning a series on Faith. Sometines, in order to define what something is, it is better first to define what it is not. So let's take a look at what faith is not.1. Faith is not Hope.__Hope is always in the future. Faith is always NOW.__Hope says, "I believe I'll get healed someday." Faith says, I am healed NOW."__Hope says, "Someday I'll be debt-free. Faith says, "I am debt-free NOW."__Hope is believing that God is going to do something. Faith believes that God has already done it.The late evangelist and Bible teacher, Kenneth Hagin, used to say, "If it's not NOW, it's not faith."So, what, then, is Faith?Hebrews 11: 1 tells us that "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Well, what is substance? Substance is whatever we need, whether it be a job, a raise, a car, a healing, a place to live. Substance could also be peace of mind, a good marriage, or wisdom in how to parent. We could describe faith as a title deed. Let's assume you hold the deed to your house or your car. That deed is not the actual house or car. It is a document that is legally as good as the actual property or car. If you show your deed to a judge in court, that judge will understand that your deed represents your ownership of the property.Faith is like that title deed. Faith is our title deed to the promises of God. For those of us who have accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord—in other words, for those of us who have been born again—faith is our title deed to all that Jesus died to give us. When Jesus released His last breath, He said, "It is finished!" What was finished? His work of salvation. There is nothing more that Jesus has to do to save us, to forgive us of our sins, or to heal us. He did it all when He shed His Blood on that Cross. Now it is up to us to receive what He died and rose from the dead to give us. Next time, we'll take a look at how to receive those blessings into our personal lives.

WINNING WITH THE WORD “Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God's principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God's manual for life. Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post. ______________________________________   Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today's blog post on podcast. https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/5_Signs_That_the_End_is_Here.mp3 __________________________________________ Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, August 14, 2023, and this is Episode #32 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "5 Signs That the End is Here!"   One has to be blind not to notice the radical changes that are occurring in our world. From the rise of the New World Order with its digital currency, the increasing use of microchips, iris scanning, and other surveillance techniques, to unprecedented, apocalyptic superstorms, outrageous inflation, and the recurrence of rare diseases, like leprosy—long thought to be eradicated—we have without question entered the period of history that the Bible describes as the end times. As some Bible experts are saying, "The end is not near; the end is here!" I would like to share with you five signs that the end is not near but already here: Sign #1. This sign is found in Daniel 9: 27 GNT - "And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease . . . ." This verse is talking about the AntiChrist and it tells us that he will confirm, or make sure, a covenant with many. The covenant will be for one week, which, in Biblical terms, means seven years. Interestingly, next month, on September 18th and 19th, the United Nations will confirm a covenant that was made with its many member nations back in 2015. Specifically, Secretary General Antonio Guterres has requested that the original signers of this covenant confirm it for another seven years. If that doesn't grab your attention, I don't know what does. Sign #2. The plans of the World Economic Forum to have the entire world population microchipped by 2026.  In a 2016 interview with Swiss Radio Television, World Economic Forum founder and leader, Klaus Schwab, asserted that humans will have microchips implanted in their brains, and under their skin, by 2026. When asked back in the 2016 interview regarding when microchip implantations would begin to be used in the human body, Schwab said this: “Certainly in the next ten years, and at first we will implant them in our clothes....And then we could imagine that we will implant them in our brains or in our skin, and, in the end, maybe, there will be a direct communication between our brain and the digital world. What we see is a kind of fusion of the physical, digital, and biological world." (https://wide-awake-media.com/klaus-schwab-humans-will-have-microchip-implants-by-2026/) Already we are seeing signs of chip implantations, especially with the FDA's recent approval of Elon Musk's brain chip, called Neuralink. We are there, my friends. The end is here. Sign #3. The fulfillment of the Fig Tree Generation. Matthew 24: 34 says this: "Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened." The generation in which we are living is called "the fig tree generation." It began back in 1948 when Israel, which the Bible refers to as "the fig tree" became a nation in a single day. So these words of Jesus mean that the generation that saw the birth of Israel as a nation will not end until all of the signs of the end times as described in Matthew 24 have occurred. Sign #4. Israel's 75 Birthday. This year Israel celebrated her 75th birthday as a nation. Interestingly,

WINNING WITH THE WORD “Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God's principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God's manual for life. Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post. ______________________________________   Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today's blog post on podcast. https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/Why_YOU_Need_to_Be_Born_Again.mp3 __________________________________________ Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, August 7, 2023, and this is Episode #31 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "Why You Need to Be Born Again." One of Satan's tactics to thwart God's plan and a person's destiny is to cast aspersions on Biblical principles and terms. Chief among these, in my opinion, is the term "born again." For various reasons, and sad to say, the term "born again" has acquired a negative connotation for many people.  So in this week's message, I would like to set the record straight and explain exactly what "born again" means and why you need to be born again. The term "born again" originates with Jesus Christ Himself. He was the first to "coin" the expression, so to speak, in the Gospel of John, chapter 3, verse 3 where He said this: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (NKJV). Let's look at these words of Christ one by one in order to grasp their meaning. First, Jesus used the words most assuredly. Why did He use these specific words? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines assuredly as meaning certainly or without a doubt [whatsoever][Brackets mine]. Most assuredly, then, means most certainly. So Jesus is saying here that most certainly you need to be born again. In other words, there is absolutely no doubt that you need to be born again.  So, the next question becomes, what does it mean to be born again? Simply put, to be born again means to be reconnected to God by receiving a new nature, a nature compatible with God's holy nature. When we are born physically into this world, we are born with a sin nature, a nature that has been corrupted by sin. Some people call this "original sin" because we received this sin nature by default from our original parents, Adam and Eve. When they rebelled against God, Papa Adam and Mama Eve lost their holy nature and got a sin nature instead. This sin nature, therefore, was the only nature they could pass on to their descendants. And that's exactly what they did. All the way down to you and me. Since a sin nature is not compatible with God's holy nature, there can be no spiritual connection between God and us. And since we were created to have a spiritual connection with God, we soon discover, to our great dismay, that we face a huge dilemma. We have a sin nature but we need a holy nature. But we can't acquire a holy nature on our own. We need help. We need a Savior. Someone who can take away our sin nature and give us a holy nature in its place. So the next question becomes, why do we need a holy nature? That is, why do we need to be born again?  Jesus gives us the reason in the second part of the verse. He explains that we need to be born again in order to see the Kingdom of God. Jesus lives in the Kingdom of God. So, if we want to see Jesus and to reconnect with Him, we need to be born again. We need a holy nature.  Okay, but what is this Kingdom of God that Jesus wants us to see? The Kingdom of God is where Jesus lives. We normally call it Heaven. It is the place of eternal life, the place where people who are born again go when they die, and where they live forever and ever and ever. Moreover, the Kingdom of God is the home for which we were originally created.

WINNING WITH THE WORD “Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God's principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God's manual for life. Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post. ______________________________________   Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today's blog post on podcast. https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/Is_Daniel_927_About_to_Be_Fulfilled_.mp3 __________________________________________ Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, July 31, 2023, and this is Episode #30 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "Is Daniel 9: 27 About to Be Fulfilled?" Bible prophecy is being fulfilled at astounding speed right before our very eyes. In this week's message, I would like to bring to your attention the significance from a prophetic standpoint of the upcoming United Nations Summit meeting to be held in New York City on September 18-19 of this year. Please check all sources cited at the end of this post. (https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/category/sustainable-development-summit/) First, a little background. Back in 2015, UN member nations signed an agreement to implement 17 Sustainable Development Goals, also known as SDGs, as part of their agenda to control the world. Of course, the UN did not say that the ultimate purpose of this agenda was to control the world. Instead, they called the agenda a (quote) "Agenda for Sustainable Development" (end of quote). Its express purpose was to implement 17 goals that the UN thinks will make this world a much better place for everyone. Following are the 17 goals: Goal #1: No poverty. Goal #2: Zero Hunger Goal #3: Good Health & Well-Being Goal #4: Quality Education Goal #5: Gender Equality Goal #6: Clean Water & Sanitation Goal #7: Affordable & Clean Energy Goal #8: Decent Work & Economic Growth Goal #9: Industry, Innovation, & Infrastructure Goal #10: Reduced Inequalities Goal #11: Sustainable Cities & Communities Goal #12: Responsible Consumption & Production Goal #13: Climate Action Goal #14: Life below Water Goal #15: Life on Land Goal #16: Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions Goal #17: Partnerships This all sounds very good, but in truth, it is a coverup for the real agenda which is to depopulate the world and to subjugate humanity under a one-world government called 'the New World Order." This UN agreement signed back in 2015 launched a 15-year plan for achieving their 17 goals to make the world more "sustainable."  Here is a statement about these 17 SDGs taken directly from the United Nations website. And I quote: "The Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. The 17 Goals are all interconnected, and in order to leave no one behind, it is important that we achieve them all by 2030." (https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/) As time went by, the name of the UN Agenda became Agenda 2030. In other words, as mentioned in its official statement, the United Nations determined to achieve its 17 sustainable goals by the year 2030. Well, progress on the goals has fallen far below what the UN had hoped to achieve by this point. So, UN Secretary Antònio Guterres recently sent out a special edition report to the member nations urging them to reconfirm their original agreement for another seven years in order to speed up the process. I quote now from his report: "First, I [Antònio Guterres] urge Heads of State and Government to recommit to seven years of accelerated, sustained and transformative action,

WINNING WITH THE WORD “Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God's principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God's manual for life. An invitation for you: To subscribe to this blog, click here.  To subscribe to this podcast, click here. If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you! Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post. ______________________________________   Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today's blog post on podcast. https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/They_re_Coming_for_Your_Children.mp3 __________________________________________ Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, July 24, 2023, and this is Episode #29 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "They're Coming for Your Children!" Communism has always had on its agenda the complete control of our children in order to indoctrinate them in the ways of Satan with the ultimate purpose of subjugating nations. Vladimir Lenin once said, "Give me a child for the first five years of his life and he will be mine forever." Lenin's philosophy is alive and well today, right here in America. It is being implemented through our educational system that is no longer focusing on teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic but, rather, on teaching a socialist philosophy that deifies the government as the supplier of every need. Most Americans now look to the government to supply them with income, healthcare, and direction. We have become a culture of dependent, fear-ridden puppets who, when the government tells us to jump, we ask "how high?"  We wear muzzles—I mean, masks—when we are told to wear them. We allow security cameras to scan our faces and record our location. We freely give out our personal information without batting an eye.  All in the name of safety and convenience. As if this weren't bad enough, the culture is now coming after our children. This pursuit has taken the form of horrific pedophilia—the bold and brazen sexual exploitation of our children in the form of child trafficking, the promiscuous promotion of pornography in the classroom, and the raping of our children's innocence in the name of progress.  Make no mistake about it. God is not pleased. In fact, as far as God is concerned, this wicked pursuit of our children is the straw that will break the camel's back for God. In Luke 17: 2, Jesus said this about those who harm children by robbing them of their innocence: "It would be better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone hung around your neck than to cause one of these little ones to fall into sin." So, how are the wicked coming after our children? They are doing it deliberately, intentionally, and openly. Through educational materials in our classrooms, materials that promote the globalist agenda to capture the minds and hearts of our children. Through drag queen appearances and performances at our local libraries. Through online chat rooms for children to discuss their sexual identity. Through books, movies, and cartoons that promote the lies of transgenderism, homosexuality, and pornography. Through the insane advocacy for cross-sex medical interventions for children supposedly confused about their gender. And implementing such advocacy without the knowledge or the consent of the parents. And, unbelievably, through churches that have strayed so far from the Bible that they can no longer be associated with Jesus Christ. All this in the name of wokism. These evil ideas are being deliberately implanted in the minds and hearts of our children for the purpose of brainwashing them. Recently, I heard of a ten-year-old child who was asked at his pediatric visit if he wer...

WINNING WITH THE WORD “Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God's principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God's manual for life. An invitation for you: To subscribe to this blog, click here.  To subscribe to this podcast, click here. If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you! Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post. ______________________________________   Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today's blog post on podcast. https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/How_to_Stop_Being_Too_Busy_to_Live.mp3 __________________________________________ Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, July 17, 2023, and this is Episode #28 of Series 2023. This episode is a replay of a post from October 3, 2016, titled "How to Stop Being Too Busy to Live". It is just as relevant today as it was back then, perhaps even more so. Read or listen, and be blessed. __________________________________________ “Busy” has become today's buzzword. Have you noticed that when you ask people how they are, the first words that usually come out of their mouths are, “I'm so busy.”  Not only is “busy” a buzzword, it has also become a badge of honor. The busier one is, the more important one is. But, the busyness lie has a way of finding us out. Sooner or later, our busyness will catch up with us and expose the truth that we are too busy mostly about nothing. This happened to me when my children were small many years ago. I was complaining to the Lord one day that I did not have enough time to do everything I had to do. Expecting a little sympathy from the Lord, I was taken aback when He said to me, lovingly but firmly, “MaryAnn, you always have enough time to do what I have called you to do.” Whoa! “O-O-O-kay,  Lord,” I replied. “Either I'm totally disorganized, or I'm doing some things You have not called me to do.”  In my case, it was the latter, as I am an organized person by nature. As I asked the Lord what I was doing that He had not called me to do, I was surprised when He pointed out several church ministries in which I was involved at the time. Good things. But not good for me. Besides, other church members were called to those ministries, and I was effectively robbing them of their ministries. A bad thing! So, I gave up those ministries and began earnestly to seek God as to what He had called me to do. As I let go of what I wanted, God gave me what I needed. A writing ministry to glorify Him, to get to know Him more intimately, and to teach me His ways in the process. One of the biggest bonuses I received from stopping the aimless busyness was that I finally started to live. No longer was I barely keeping my head above water and merely surviving. I started to enjoy my life. I started to smell the roses and to seize the precious moments of life as they presented themselves in quiet, subtle ways.  In short, I began experiencing the abundant life Jesus died to give me (John 10: 10). How? By making my time with Jesus the most important priority in my life. By sitting continually at His feet. By refusing to take a step without first seeking Holy Spirit's direction. In Luke 10: 41-42, Jesus is having a conversation with Martha. Martha, you may recall, was the sister in the Mary-Martha duo who was constantly busy. Her busyness kept her in a continual state of anxiety, worry, and stress. Sound familiar? In talking to Martha one day while she was busy, busy, busy, Jesus said this: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” – Luke 10: 41-42

WINNING WITH THE WORD “Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God's principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God's manual for life. An invitation for you: To subscribe to this blog, click here.  To subscribe to this podcast, click here. If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you! Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post. ______________________________________   Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today's blog post on podcast. https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/Signs_Seasons_of_Christ_s_Return.mp3 __________________________________________ Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, July 10, 2023, and this is Episode #27 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "Signs & Seasons of Christ's Return". There is a very interesting Scripture passage in Mark 13: 28-29 that says this: “Now learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branches bud and its leaves begin to sprout, you know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see all these things taking place, you can know that His [Jesus Christ's] return is very near, right at the door." (Brackets mine.) Prophecy expert and teacher T.W. Tramm has pointed out that summer as used in this Scripture is a metaphor for the end times. Keeping this in mind, Tram discusses five signs of summer that indicate that our Lord Jesus is coming soon to take us home in the Rapture. Let's take a look at these five signs. 1. The 8th Anniversary of the Appearance of the Star of Bethlehem in 2015. July 1st of this year marked eight years since the Jupiter-Venus conjunction, referred to as the Star of Bethlehem, reappeared in 2015. While this recurrent conjunction is not necessarily rare, as Tramm points out, the one that occurred in 2015 was unique in that it occurred on the Jewish fall feasts of harvest. Also, like the original Star of Bethlehem that appeared around 2 B.C., this 2015 Bethlehem Star was a rare triple conjunction that occurred in the constellation Leo, or the Lion. It is this constellation that represents Jesus as the Lion of Judah, as we read in Revelation 5: 5, where John writes: "But one of the twenty-four elders said to me, 'Stop weeping! Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the heir to David's throne, has won the victory. He is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals.'” Also, the appearance of the Bethlehem Star in 2015 occurred in a sabbatical year, just as did the original Bethlehem Star. The sabbatical year is the seventh of seven years during which the Israelites are not to plant crops but to let the ground rest for a year. This command is found in Leviticus 25: 3-5:  "For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest.” So every seventh year, there was to be no planting or pruning of crops. The land was to rest. It is possible, as Tramm points out, that the Bethlehem Star and eclipses of 2015 were a seven-year warning about the Sabbatical week that will begin in September of this year on Rosh Hashanah, September 15-17.  2. The Full Moon. On July 3rd of this year, the first full moon of summer appeared. This moon was a super moon and indicates the type of moon that will usher in the return of the "goodman" of the house—namely, Jesus Christ—as described in Proverbs 7: 20: "...at the full moon he [the goodman or husband] will come home."   The full moon represents the Bride of Christ,

WINNING WITH THE WORD “Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God's principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God's manual for life. An invitation for you: To subscribe to this blog, click here.  To subscribe to this podcast, click here. If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you! Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post. ______________________________________   Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today's blog post on podcast. https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/The_Lunatic_Age.mp3 __________________________________________ Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, July 3, 2023, and this is Episode #26 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "The Lunatic Age". Those who are honest among us–and who still can think straight—will not be afraid to acknowledge that we are living in an age of utter lunacy, an age when logical thinking has gone out the window and has been replaced by insanity, idiocy, and every form of stupidity possible to human beings. If my parents were alive today, they would not recognize the world in which we live. So, you may be wondering, like a lot of people, how did we get here? The answer is very simple. We got here by turning away from God and, thereby, turning away from Truth, because God is Truth. The Bible is very clear that if we turn away from God, He will turn away from us. And when God, Who is Truth, turns away, we have no Truth left on which to base our thinking. Romans 1: 28 says this: "And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done."  In other words, when we choose not to honor and reverence God and to obey His commands, then He will leave us to our own devices. He will turn away from us and leave us to fend for ourselves without the benefit of Truth. All we have to do is to look around us to see what happens to people who lead lives without truth. They become lunatics. A life without truth is a life of deception. A life of lies. Our culture has abandoned God. He has said, "Enough! Do what you want, and see what happens." Well, we are seeing what happens. Some men think they are women. Some women think they are men. Some people think they are cats. Drag queens lead story hour at our public libraries. So-called churches have transgenders as pastors. If this is not lunacy, I do not know what is.  Lunacy is what happens when people turn away from God. They become their own god, and they surely make a mess of their lives as a result.  God will not strive with man forever. In other words, God will not go chasing man down forever. God gives us many chances, but at some point, we run out of chances. That is what has happened to our world today. It has run out of chances because it has scorned God's continual calls to repentance. If God has turned you over to a reprobate mind, then you can no longer think logically. Why? Because logical thinking is founded on Truth. When one strays from Truth, one automatically strays from logical thinking.  We have no excuses. We are getting what we deserve. And things will only get worse for those who persist in their rebellion. While they may think they are living the good life, they will soon find out that it leads to Hell. So, is there any hope for a reprobate mind to be restored to sanity? Yes. But it will require a fierce commitment to the following: 1. Sincere repentance. This means a sincere turning away from sin and an acceptance of Jesus Christ Who alone is Truth. 2. Unflinching obedience to the Word of God at all costs, even in the face of the worst temptation.

WINNING WITH THE WORD “Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God's principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God's manual for life. An invitation for you: To subscribe to this blog, click here.  To subscribe to this podcast, click here. If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you! Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post. ______________________________________   Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today's blog post on podcast. https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/Are_We_in_the_Last_Hour_of_Human_History_2.mp3 __________________________________________ Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, June 26, 2023, and this is Episode #25 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "Are We in the Last Hour of Human History?" If you're like many people, you may be taking a look at the culture around you and wondering if we are near the end of the world. Well, I for one, think we are. Very near. What reasons do I have for thinking that we are in the last hour of human history? To answer that question, join me in exploring an eye-opening Scripture passage about the times in which we live. This passage is in 1 John 2: 18-20:  "Dear children, the last hour is here. You have heard that the AntiChrist is coming, and already many such antiChrists have appeared. From this we know that the last hour has come. These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us. But you are not like that, for the Holy One has given you his Spirit, and all of you know the truth." This passage provides three significant reasons that reveal we are in the final hours of human history. Let's take a look at each reason: 1) The rise of many anti-Christs, leading to the rise of THE AntiChrist. Verse 18 says this. "You have heard that the AntiChrist is coming, and already many such antiChrists have appeared. From this we know that the last hour has come." An antiChrist is not only a person who opposes Christ, but also a person who attempts to supplant Christ. Today, we have the majority of the world population openly opposing Christ by deliberately mocking Him and any one who loves and follows Him. We also have millions of people who brazenly disobey God's commandments and live in utter rebellion to His ways. The rise of many antiChrists is a sign of the imminent rise of THE AntiChrist, the global dictator who will soon dominate the world through the use of terror tactics toward all those who do not comply with his agenda. I believe that the AntiChrist is already alive and waiting in the wings to emerge. His appearance will be revealed through the confirming or expansion or strengthening of a covenant or agreement that will already be in place at the time of his arrival.  I believe that the current Abrahamic  Accords agreement is that very covenant. Already there is talk of adding more nations to the Abrahamic Accords, what could be considered a "strengthening" of that agreement.  What we do know for sure is that the confirming of this major agreement--whatever it is--will mark the beginning of the horrific seven-year period known as the Tribulation. At the end of the Tribulation, Jesus Christ will return to judge the world, to separate the just from the wicked, and to begin His 1000-year reign of peace known as the Millennium.  2) The great apostasy or falling away from God. Verse 19 of our passage says this: "These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left,

WINNING WITH THE WORD “Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God's principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God's manual for life. An invitation for you: To subscribe to this blog, click here.  To subscribe to this podcast, click here. If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you! Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post. ______________________________________   Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today's blog post on podcast. https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/Are_You_a_Laodicean_.mp3 __________________________________________ Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, June 19, 2023, and this is Episode #24 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "Are You a Laodicean?" So, what is a Laodicean? To understand what a Laodicean is, we need to go back to the Book of Revelation 3: 14-22: Here Jesus is speaking to the Apostle John: Let's take a look at that passage now: “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Laodicea. This is the message from the one who is the Amen—the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's new creation: 'I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! You say, "I am rich. I have everything I want. I don't need a thing!" And you don't realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. So I advise you to buy gold from me—gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich. Also buy white garments from me so you will not be shamed by your nakedness, and ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see. I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference. Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. Those who are victorious will sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne. Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.'” Laodicea was a city in what is now modern-day Turkey. It was a wealthy city situated in the valley of the Lycos River. Laodicea was founded about 260 B.C. by King Antiochus II, a king of Syria, and it was named after his wife Laodice.  The city lay not far from two other cities, Hierapolis and Colossae. Both Hierapolis and Colossae provided water to Laodicea from their springs. Hierapolis had hot springs where people would go for physical therapy for their aches and pains. Colossae had cold springs that were clean and perfect for drinking. Laodicea's water supply came from the merging of these two springs into an aqueduct located six miles south of the city. But the problem was that the hot and cold water mingled in the aqueduct so that by the time it reached Laodicea, it was unfit for drinking. In other words, it was useless. The water contained inedible minerals from the hot springs of Hierapolis, blended with the clean water from the cold springs of Colossae. By the time the water reached Laodicea, it was lukewarm, unclean, and undrinkable. It made the people sick. Sick enough to vomit it out of their mouths. Jesus used this metaphor to describe the condition of the church at Laodicea. Prior to addressing this church, Jesus had already addressed six other churches. But, Laodicea was the only church about which Jesus had nothing good to say.  Using the analogy of the lukewarm water that entered Laodicea, Jesus described this church as spiritually lukewarm.

WINNING WITH THE WORD “Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God's principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God's manual for life. An invitation for you: To subscribe to this blog, click here.  To subscribe to this podcast, click here. If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you! Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post. ______________________________________   Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today's blog post on podcast.  https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/Are_You_Worried_about_Your_Financial_Future_.mp3 _________________________________________ Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, June 12, 2023. Today's episode will be a replay of a podcast I did on November 14, 2022 titled "Are You Worried about Your Financial Future?" _________________________________________ Originally published and broadcast on Monday, November 14, 2022 . . . If you've had your eyes open at all, you know about the predicted food shortages and famines, the projected stock market crash, and the move toward a digital world currency. All of these ominous events are causing great anxiety among the world population. Already I've read that some families here in America have reduced their daily meals to two a day instead of the usual three. Drought has ruined many crops throughout the world, and, if things don't change, the world is heading to famine. But today I'd like to encourage you not to be anxious nor to fear,  I'm going to share with you some promises from God for His children. (If you are not His child, then listen closely so you can become His child and receive these benefits as well.) The world is fast heading into a time period that the Bible calls "the time of Jacob's trouble" (Jeremiah 30: 7). This will be a seven-year time period, also known as the Tribulation, during which God will judge the Jews for rejecting the Messiah. The Book of Revelation speaks extensively of the time of Jacob's trouble. During this time, there will be widespread famine. The fact that we are witnessing the approach of global famine now means that the Tribulation is not far off, and the return of Jesus is even closer. The Bible tells us that Jesus will return to remove His followers from the earth before the Tribulation. He said that when we see all these things converging—wars, rumors of wars, increase in the number and intensity of earthquakes, violent storms, and food shortages—we can know that His return is imminent. So, what can you do? 1. The most important thing you need to do is to get born again if you are not yet born again. What does the term "born again" mean? It means to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord so that you can experience the new birth He died to give you. You see, when we were born physically into this world, we received a fallen, corrupted spirit that separated us from God. Jesus wants to give us a new spirit that connects us back to God. Jesus died and paid the price for the sin that caused our corrupted spirits in the first place and, in exchange, He gives us eternal life. So, the first order of business is to get born again. Do it now! How? 1. Acknowledge before God that you are a sinner. 2. Repent of your sin. This means turn away from it and go in the opposite direction.  3. Receive Jesus into your heart by asking Him to come in. Once you do these three things, you become a child of God (John 1: 12). And as His child, You become eligible for His blessings. One of His blessings includes financial provision. He promises in Philippians 4: 19 that He will supply all your need. This means that He will provide everything you need because yo...

WINNING WITH THE WORD “Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God's principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God's manual for life. An invitation for you: To subscribe to this blog, click here.  To subscribe to this podcast, click here. If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you! Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post. ______________________________________   Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today's blog post on podcast. https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/Prepare_for_Persecution.mp3 ________________________________________ Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, June 5, 2023, and this is Episode #23 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "Prepare for Persecution".    No one likes to talk of persecution, especially those being persecuted. But, as we look around, we cannot help but see that persecution against Christians is on the rise. Why? Because we adhere to absolute Truth, and the world wants no part of truth these days. Yet, all around us, we are seeing the consequences of straying from the truth and embracing the lie. For example, our culture no longer knows the difference between men and women. Our culture calls good evil and evil good. Our culture promotes harm to children through the lies it is teaching them about transgenderism, authority, and rebellion.  The farther man strays from truth, the more perverse he becomes. Why? Because man was created for truth. But Satan tempted him to renounce truth and to choose the lie. And, sadly, man did.  Satan's tactics haven't changed. He still tempts man to choose the lie over truth. And, tragically, most men fall into Satan's trap. The horrendous evil we are witnessing around us today is the result of man's choosing the lie over the truth. So, what is truth? Truth is a Person. Truth is Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself said this about Himself: "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14: 6).  Without Jesus, there can be no recognition of truth because Jesus is Truth. Today's world has replaced the Truth with the Lie. It has replaced Jesus with Satan. And all we have to do is to look around us to see the consequences of replacing the Truth with the Lie. Of replacing Jesus with Satan. As the world continues to embrace Satan over Jesus, the world will eventually realize what Satan is really like. He is the essence of evil. He is the Lie itself. The Bible tells us that Satan is a liar and the father of lies. There is no truth in him.  Since Satan is evil personified, all evil comes from him. The bad things that happen in the world are the result of man's acceptance—and even his exaltation—of the lie. Today the world is exalting sin like never before. It is openly advocating sin. And it is scoffing at truth. But one day, unless those who follow Satan repent, they will reap the consequences of their rebellion. And it won't be pretty. Satan has already begun to show his true colors in the insanity that has taken over the world. In the transgender movement, the Satan worship movement, the pedophilia movement, and every other abhorrent movement that mocks God and His Word. We Christians will be increasingly marginalized and persecuted. We will be called "terrorists" and "enemies of the state".  Already we are seeing signs of this. We must be prepared for what is to come. To that end, I have written a book called The Iron Saint. In this short book, I delve into Biblical principles that we, as the Body of Christ, must adopt and adhere to if we want to remain strong in the day of persecution. Based on the training principles of The Iron Man Triath...

WINNING WITH THE WORD “Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God's principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God's manual for life. An invitation for you: To subscribe to this blog, click here.  To subscribe to this podcast, click here. If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you! Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post. ______________________________________   Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today's blog post on podcast. https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/Fear_The_Thief_of_Freedom.mp3 ________________________________________ Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, May 29, 2023, and this is Episode #22 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "Fear: The Thief of Freedom."   The past few years have exposed an alarming truth: Fear will motivate people to give up their freedom. Now, before you balk at my statement, let me ask you a few questions: During the pandemic . . .  Did you wear a mask? Did you stay locked down in your home? Did you give fist bumps instead of handshakes? If you're like most people, you did all three. But have you ever asked yourself why? Most likely, the reason you did all three is that you were afraid. Afraid of what? Afraid of getting sick. Why? Because you were afraid of dying. 1. You wore a mask because you were afraid of getting sick and dying. 2. You stayed in lockdown for the same reason. You were afraid of possibly exposing yourself to sick people, getting sick yourself, and dying. 3. You gave fist bumps instead of handshakes because you were afraid of getting sick and dying. In each case, you gave up some of your freedom in exchange for safety and protection from dying.  Studies have shown that the root of all fear is the fear of physical death. A person will give up anything, even his freedom, in order to be relieved of the fear of death. In order to be safe and protected from death. During the pandemic, did you ever ask yourself if the mask was really protecting you? If the lockdown was really keeping you safe? If the fist bump really warded off sickness and death? Most likely, you did not. Most likely, your fear was so great that you didn't stop to think. Or challenge. Most likely, you just went along with the crowd. You just believed everything the government told you. You did exactly what the government said to do. You never questioned the government's advice nor its motives. You just followed along in lockstep with the rest of the world. All because you were afraid. Today, nearly a full four years later, we are paying the price for our fear. We are facing an increasingly controlling government--both national and global--who has used and continues to use fear to implement its ulterior motive of subjugating us. And, frankly, they've done a good job. The pandemic did not happen by chance. It was planned. And fear was the catalyst to getting the results we are witnessing today: the rise of a one-world government that will control every aspect of your life and rob you of your freedom.  All of this was prophesied in the Bible, especially in the Books of Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation. A world that has rejected Truth will live in fear. And fear is the thief of freedom. Yet, God has given us the antidote to fear. His Name is Jesus Christ. But the world refuses to believe in Him. It amazes me that people will sooner believe the government than believe God. Yet, that is what we have done. We have trusted a government that does not have the best interests of the people at heart. We have trusted a government that has its own agenda called the New World Order.

WINNING WITH THE WORD “Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God's principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God's manual for life. An invitation for you: To subscribe to this blog, click here.  To subscribe to this podcast, click here. If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you! Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post. ______________________________________   Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today's blog post on podcast. https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/The_Lie_of_A_I_.mp3 ________________________________________ Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, May 22, 2023, and this is Episode #21 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "The Lie of A.I." The topic of Artificial Intelligence, aka AI, has headlined the news lately and has raised a lot of serious questions. What is AI and how is it fulfilling Bible prophecy? Yes, in case you have any doubts, it is fulfilling Bible prophecy.  According to Britannica.com, AI, or Artificial Intelligence, is "the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings. The term is frequently applied to the project of developing systems endowed with the intellectual processes characteristic of humans, such as the ability to reason, discover meaning, generalize, or learn from past experience." Generally speaking, psychology characterizes human intelligence as the combination of many abilities, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, and the ability to speak and use language. AI seeks to imitate these abilities and even to surpass them. In fact, trans-humanists are using AI to create—or to attempt to create—a species of superhuman whom they call Homo Sapiens, Version 2.0. AI is permeating every aspect of our lives and is closely linked to Bible prophecy.  How so? Well-known Bible teacher and prophecy expert, Pastor Billy Crone, describes AI as follows: "AI is in the process of taking over every aspect of society. Self-driving cars, robotic surgery, lightning-fast communication, … it all sounds so good. But the Bible tells us how these seemingly helpful benefits to society will be used to usher in the dark agenda of the Antichrist in the future." AI has already made extensive inroads into such areas as health, education, transportation, the economy, and the military. For example, doctors are doing surgery using robots run by Artificial Intelligence. The military is using AI in its operations both at home and abroad. Consider Project Maven, the Pentagon's flagship Artificial Intelligence effort that has been used to conduct military operations in all branches of the service. Through the use of unmanned drones, military robots, and equipment such as exploding dragonflies, the way the military conducts warfare has drastically changed. AI is being called "the new electricity". Just as the invention of electricity transformed society and the way we lived at that time, so is AI transforming society and the way we live now. AI has already infiltrated homes, businesses, cities, shopping, education, even law enforcement through the concept of "predictive policing".  So, what's the problem, you may ask? AI is doing a lot of good things. For one thing, it's making our lives easier. And who doesn't want that? It's doing things for us so that we don't have to do them for ourselves.  While all this sounds good, there is great danger inherent in AI. The danger in AI is that it is catering to a selfish, pleasure-loving society that wants convenience at all costs. A society that loves pleasure more than God.

WINNING WITH THE WORD “Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God's principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God's manual for life. An invitation for you: To subscribe to this blog, click here.  To subscribe to this podcast, click here. If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you! Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post. ______________________________________   Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today's blog post on podcast. https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/Have_You_Lost_All_Hope_.mp3 ________________________________________ Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, May 15, 2023, and this is Episode #20 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "Have You Lost All Hope?"   Many people are answering that question in the affirmative today. They look around them and see things getting worse: rising inflation, increasing job lay-offs, collapsing economy, expanding violence, frightening loss of freedom, clueless leaders, etc., etc., etc. It's enough to make one wonder where is it all going to end? Yet, despite all these depressing scenarios, we can have hope in the midst of the storm.  Why? Because we Christ-followers know where it's going to end, and the end for us is glorious! But meanwhile, how do we contend with the world in which we still live?  Here are a few proven tips taken straight from the Bible: 1. Think on pleasant things.  Philippians 4: 4-8 says this:  "And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise." What we choose to think about will affect the way we feel. Feelings are the results of thoughts. And if we continually think bad thoughts, we will end up with bad feelings. Our actions follow our feelings. So if we live with continual negative feelings, we will express those negative feelings in negative actions, like murmuring, complaining, criticizing, impatience, and so on. So make it a habit to think good thoughts, thoughts that align with hope, joy, and peace. Thoughts that align with the Holy Word of God. You will be a lot happier. You will also be able to encourage others when they need encouragement. 2. Keep your eyes on heavenly things, not earthly things. Colossians 3: 2  says this: "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." There are so many demands on our daily lives that it is difficult to keep our eyes on things other than  this life. Yet, doing so is the key to having hope. This world is not our permanent home. We are simply passing through. Should we not, therefore, be focusing on preparing for our permanent home instead of living as though we will be here forever? But, how do we keep our eyes on heavenly things? It is a matter of putting God first. Jesus said this in Matthew 6: 33 NLT:  "Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need." Jesus is telling us that if we focus on God first, God will take care of everything we need. It's that simple.  How do we focus on God first? Here are a few tips: 1. Start your day with God. Read and study a Bible passage. Pray. Listen to His instructions for you for that day. 2. Talk with God throughout the day. Ask His advice. Tell Him your concerns.  3. Thank Him for His many blessings. Develop a grateful heart.  Now we move on to the third way to contend with our current world, and that is to . . .  3. Trust in the Lord. Proverbs 3: 5 says this: "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."

WINNING WITH THE WORD “Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God's principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God's manual for life. An invitation for you: To subscribe to this blog, click here.  To subscribe to this podcast, click here. If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you! Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post. ______________________________________   Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today's blog post on podcast. https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/America_Land_of_Compliant_Cowards_.mp3 ________________________________________ Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, May 8, 2023, and this is Episode #19 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "America: The Land of Compliant Cowards?" Eighteenth-century Anglo-Irish statesman, economist, and philosopher, Edmund Burke, is purportedly to have said that "the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." Whether Burke actually said this or not, the truth of the statement remains. Evil flourishes when good men do nothing to stop it. Such is the condition of our country today. And of most countries in the world. We have a global situation in which very few of the good people remaining are doing anything to stop the evil. Why is this? I believe there are several reasons, among which are the following: 1) An erroneous belief that we are so far gone that no protest will matter because we can't stop the decline. 2) A weariness at trying over and over to push back the tide of evil, but without seeing any results. 3) A despair that one person can still make a difference. But one person can still make a difference! Even if there is no turning back of evil, there is still the turning back of one individual person at a time from evil to good. There are still people out there who are truly searching for truth. But they don't know where to find it.  That is where you and I who are Christ-Followers come in. We must go out into the harvest fields and reap the harvest. The Bible says in Luke 10: 2 that "the harvest is great but the laborers are few." Will you be one of those laborers? You might ask how have we come to this? Well, I have an opinion, and it has to do with the men of America. I believe that we have a shortage of men in America. I'm not talking about numbers; I'm talking about character. A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post titled "Are You Suffering from a Father Wound?". A father wound represents the hurt inflicted on a child by the man who sired him or her. The response to that post was stunning. It told me that the number of people suffering from a father wound is astronomical.  So, what does this mean? It has long been my contention, based on my observations and experience as a Certified Life Coach and a Certified Biblical Counselor, that America has millions of males but very few men.  You might be asking, "What's the difference?" Here, in my humble opinion, is the difference between men and males. And it is huge. 1__A male is out for his own gratification, usually in the areas of sexual lust, greed, and power. A male thinks only of meeting his own needs and doesn't care for the effect of his actions on others. A male will bail out on his responsibilities to the women he has used, or the wife he has married, and the children he has sired. And he will bail out without compunction and without looking back. A male will not stand up for what is right but will pursue the path of least resistance. The path that aligns with his own selfish motives.  2__A man, on the other hand, puts aside his own needs for the needs of those he loves.

WINNING WITH THE WORD “Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God's principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God's manual for life. An invitation for you: To subscribe to this blog, click here.  To subscribe to this podcast, click here. If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you! Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post. ______________________________________   Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today's blog post on podcast. https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/Are_You_Guilty_of_Normalcy_Bias_.mp3 ________________________________________ Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, May 1, 2023, and this is Episode #18 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "Are You Guilty of Normalcy Bias?" If you haven't yet heard the term "normalcy bias", you are hearing it now.  So, what is normalcy bias? Normalcy bias is the human tendency to underestimate the seriousness of a situation. It is the tendency to minimize danger and crisis and to pretend that they cannot happen. Normalcy bias is a dangerous form of denial that could lead to suffering and even death. How? Well, when we refuse to take heed to warnings, and when we insist that nothing bad is going to happen despite warnings to the contrary, we place ourselves in serious risk of getting hurt. Let me give you an example. Suppose a tornado warning is issued in your area, and you are urged to take cover. If you are in normalcy bias, you'll say, "Oh, it's just another storm," and you won't take cover. You'll falsely believe that you are in no danger. And you may be deadly wrong. Literally! Another serious form of normalcy bias is the common belief today that our country is going to return to normal. I hate to tell you, my friend, but our country will never return to normal. It will never return to the way it was before the pandemic. In fact, things will only get worse. You might be thinking, "How do you know, Dr. MaryAnn? What are you, some kind of a doomsday prophet?" No, my friend. I am not a doomsday prophet. I am a serious, long-time student of the Bible, and I am simply telling you what the Bible predicted about the times in which we live. You see, when I tell you that things will get worse instead of better, I am getting my information from the most reliable source possible: God Himself. God Himself recorded this information in the Bible so that we could read it and know what lies ahead. But, the sad thing is that few people today read the Bible. Few people care enough to know the truth about what is really going on. Most people want to deny the truth and pretend that everything will be okay again.  But, it won't! Why not? Because God Himself said it won't. Not, at least, until He returns at the end of the seven-year Tribulation, in the event known as the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, to judge the world and to set up His millennial Kingdom on earth.  Meanwhile, the world is now entering into the period described in the Bible as the Tribulation--a seven-year period of horrific suffering under the rule of the most vicious dictator in all of human history called the AntiChrist. The AntiChrist will be possessed by Satan and will be his embodiment in the earth. Under the dictatorship of the AntiChrist, you will own nothing and be happy. You will be surveilled wherever you go. In fact, you will be told where you can go and where you can't go. Where you can live and where you can't live. What you can eat and what you can't eat. What you can buy and what you cannot buy. Every facet of your life will be under the control of the AntiChrist and his one-world government.

WINNING WITH THE WORD “Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God's principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God's manual for life. An invitation for you: To subscribe to this blog, click here.  To subscribe to this podcast, click here. If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you! Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post. ______________________________________   Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today's blog post on podcast.   https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/Are_You_Wielding_Your_Two-Edged_Sword_.mp3 _________________________________________ Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, April 24, 2023, and this is Episode #17 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "Are You Wielding Your Two-Edged Sword?" Throughout the Bible, there are numerous references to a weapon called a two-edged sword. This is a spiritual weapon that God has provided for every Christ-follower, and it is used to fight off Satan and his demons as we engage in spiritual warfare against them. But few of us know how to use this weapon. So, today, we are going to explore what the two-edged sword is and how we can wield it effectively. First of all, what is a two-edged sword? The term two-edged comes from two Greek words: di, which means two, and stomos, which means mouth. In Greek, the two words put together make the word distomos, which means two mouths. Thus, when these two words are merged into one (distomos), they describe something that is two-mouthed, or has two mouths. Would you agree, however, that this meaning seems a little strange? So, why would the Bible refer to the Word of God repeatedly as a “two-edged sword” or, literally, a “two-mouthed sword”, a sword having two mouths? What do two mouths have to do with the two edges of a sword?  Let's look more closely.  One verse in the Bible, Hebrews 4: 12, uses the expression two-edged sword to describe the Word of God. The verse says this: "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword.…" Hebrews 4: 12 Very interesting, no? if we apply our definition of two-edged as having two mouths, we come up with a sword with two mouths. Well, what could that mean?  In the Book of Revelation 1: 16, the Word of God says this in describing Jesus: “And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword...."  Notice: the two-edged sword was not in Jesus' hand but in His mouth. Why? The message being conveyed in this image is that the two-edged sword represents the Word of God. Ephesians 6:17 calls God's Word the "sword of the Spirit." It is the sword of truth that we are to use to drive the lies of Satan out of our lives. Indeed, Jesus Himself is the Word of God. And out of His mouth comes forth a two-edged sword, which represents His Word. It is this Word coming out of God's mouth that has power to destroy the lies of Satan with its sharp and powerful truth. God's Word that came forth from God's mouth and that is now recorded for us in the Bible is one side or one edge of the two-edged sword. Now here comes the good part for us as Christ-followers. In giving us His Word, Jesus gave us His sword, for they are one and the same thing. And we can use that same sword to drive out the lies of the enemy from our lives!  When we do, we are implementing the second side or the second edge of the sword.  And it gets even better. When we use the same sword that Jesus used--the Word of God--we are setting ourselves in agreement with Jesus. We are setting in motion the power of agreement described in Matthew 18: 19 where Jesus says this: "If two of you agree h...

WINNING WITH THE WORD “Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God's principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God's manual for life. An invitation for you: To subscribe to this blog, click here.  To subscribe to this podcast, click here. If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you! Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post. ______________________________________   Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today's blog post on podcast. https://content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/The_Mark_of_the_Beast.mp3  _________________________________________ Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, April 17, 2023, and this is Episode #16 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "The Mark of the Beast: What You Should Know and Why". Quite likely, you have heard of the mark of the beast. If not, you will hear about it in this message. So pay close attention. What is the mark of the beast, what should you know about it, and why? The mark of the beast is a sign of the last days, as predicted in the Bible. Specifically, it is a mark that will be placed on and in the hands or the foreheads of those who will give allegiance to the AntiChrist and worship him during the seven-year period of unspeakable terror known as the Tribulation.   One of the signs that the implementation of the mark of the beast is getting closer and closer is the growing move by the globalists toward trans-humanism. The American Heritage Dictionary defines trans-humanism as the "belief that humans should strive to transcend the physical limitations of the mind and body by technological means."  An article by Christian Evidence titled "The Rise of Transhumanism" and published on February 20, 2023, describes trans-humanism as follows:  "Transhumanism is a philosophical, scientific, and essentially religious movement that seeks to merge humans with emerging technology, such as brain chips and genetic engineering. By doing so, transhumanists believe that we can enhance our intellectual and physical capacities; transcend our biological limitations, including death; and create a more evolved species they call the 'posthuman.'" * Influential globalists, like Jewish historian and social scientist Yuval Noah Harari, and Karl Schwab, founder and chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF), are teaching that mankind is moving toward a new level of perfection—a level of immortality, even— where, by using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other modern computer technology, man will no longer die but live forever on a Utopian earth, an earth the globalists are trying to transform through deliberate climate change, the destruction of our food supply, and the promotion of a vaccine that has killed more people than it has helped.  So, what does the mark of the beast have to do with all of this?  It is possible that the mark of the beast will be the means by which a human will be turned into a trans-human. In taking the mark of the beast, a person will receive some kind of substance—whether biological or technological, probably a combination of both—that could possibly alter his DNA from the way God created it to an unnatural DNA that no longer makes him human. This new hybrid creature will be called a "trans-human" and will be the modern-day version of the Nephilim mentioned in the Bible in Genesis, chapter 6. Scripture tells us in Matthew 24: 37 that "as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man." Just as there were Nephilim in Noah's day—hybrid creatures who were part human and part demonic as a result of the sexual intercourse that occurred between fallen angels and human women—so will there be hybrid creatures at our Lord's second...

WINNING WITH THE WORD “Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God's principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God's manual for life. An invitation for you: To subscribe to this blog, click here.  To subscribe to this podcast, click here. If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you! Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post. ______________________________________   Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today's blog post on podcast. https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/Are_You_Suffering_from_a_Father_Wound.mp3  _________________________________________ Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, April 10, 2023, and this is Episode #15 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "Are You Suffering from a Father Wound?" What is a father wound?  According to Focus on the Family's Alfred C.W. Davis, the father wound is "the absence of love from one's birth father." * Father wounds stem from many causes, but bottomline, a father wound results from one's earthly father's not meeting one's physical, emotional, psychological, or spiritual needs. This failure to meet a child's needs can result from abuse, absence, domination, or death. It can also result from the withholding of love for whatever reason. Regardless of the cause, the pain of the wound is the same—deep and lingering. The most common effect of a father wound is lack of self-worth, usually resulting in performance syndrome. The child comes to believe that he has to perform in order to be loved. And so begins the vicious cycle of doing, instead of being, the vicious cycle that ends up destroying the child and his future relationships, even into adulthood. Some symptoms of the father wound are the following: __Feelings of unworthiness. "I'm not good enough." __Feelings of being stupid. "I'll never get this." __Feelings of inadequacy and incompetence. "I'm a loser." __Feelings of being unloved or unlovable. "Who would want to love me?" Those suffering from father wounds usually experience constant, underlying inner pain and are often unaware of the cause. It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that our souls can be healed and restored. You see, when we are born again, it is our spirits that are made perfect. This is called justification. We are instantaneously justified before God by the Blood of Christ. Our souls, however --our mind, will, and emotions--are still wounded and scarred and need to be healed. This healing process, which can take a lifetime, is what the Bible calls sanctification--that is, becoming holy. So, once we have been born again--that is, once we have accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord—He can begin healing the father wound. The healing of the father wound comes under the heading of sanctification. This means that, little by little, the Holy Spirit restores our wounded souls. He reveals lies we have believed about our fathers. He gives us understanding of the reasons our fathers acted the way they did. He does not condone our fathers' actions. Rather, He helps us to understand them so that we can more readily forgive our fathers. Father wounds often involve lies from the devil. For example, a father wound can cause us to believe we are worthless and good for nothing. But, when we read the Word of God, we discover the truth about ourselves. We discover who we truly are in Christ—that we are enough because God says we are. We are not stupid, because we have the mind of Christ. We are not losers, but we are more than conquerors through Christ Who loves us. We are worthy of love because God loves us and died to save us.  Probably the worst effect of a father wound is that it giv...

WINNING WITH THE WORD “Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God's principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God's manual for life. An invitation for you: To subscribe to this blog, click here.  To subscribe to this podcast, click here. If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you! Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post. ______________________________________   https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/The_Dangers_of_Digital_Currency.mp3  _________________________________________ Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, April 3, 2023, and this is Episode #14 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "The Dangers of Digital Currency". If you have not yet heard about the imminent adoption of a digital currency system here in the United States and throughout the world, you will soon. Sometime this year, the United States will very likely make the huge transition from cash and credit cards to digital currency. What exactly is digital currency, and why should we be concerned about it?  According to journalist Leo Hohmann, digital currency is a "cashless electronic payment system that feeds on your personal biometric data." So what does that mean? It means that we will no longer be able to pay for purchases with cash or credit cards. Instead, we will pay with a scan of the hand or the face, a practice called facial recognition.  Why the concern? It seems as though digital currency will make our lives easier, no? We won't have to carry around credit cards. We can pay with a simple scan of our hand. No more worries about not having enough cash on us or forgetting our credit card. So, what's the problem? The problem is that the digital currency system is a cover-up for the implementation of the Mark of the Beast as prophesied in the Book of Revelation, chapter 13: 16: "He [the AntiChrist] required everyone—small and great, rich and poor, free and slave—to be given a mark on the right hand or on the forehead. And no one could buy or sell anything without that mark, which was either the name of the beast or the number representing his name."  That number, as we learn in the following verse, is 666, the number associated with the AntiChrist. Amazon has already rolled out its "pay by palm" platform to pay for purchases in its brick-and-mortar stores. Based on the Amazon model, the Panera Bread chain has announced that it is planning to roll out a digital system for purchases in its restaurants. J.P. Morgan Bank has also announced such a roll-out and plans to make it available to the banks and businesses within its purview.  Other credit card companies have already introduced payment systems based on hand or face scans. For example, VISA calls its biometric system "contactless payment".  If you visit Visa's website, you can find a list of retailers already participating in its contactless payment system. These include McDonalds, CVS Pharmacy, 7-Eleven, Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks, OfficeMax, Whole Foods, Aldi, and Costco, among others. Mastercard has introduced a similar biometric payment system that it calls "Smile to Pay". Well, we won't be smiling any time soon when we learn what is really going on.  The truth of the matter is that the world is being set up and programmed to accept the Mark of the Beast, the mark that will be required during the Tribulation in order to buy or sell anything. You might ask, "What's wrong with that?" If it makes my life easier by making shopping more convenient, what's the harm? The harm is this. The mark of the beast is not simply a financial transaction tool. The mark of the beast is an indication that one has chosen to worship Satan instead of the one true God....