Podcasts about remember jesus

Send us a textFrom 1 Timothy 2:1–2, we learned that:

This month of supernatural provision is a month of manna being rained down from heaven. God is multiplying everything. It is a month of fruitfulness. Remember Jesus is the firstfruit who resurrected on Nisan 17 and we are the sons and daughters that come from Him. We are His multiplication. He broke the power of sin , death , and grave to release us from lack and deliver us into wholeness, fruitfulness & multiplication.This month we see a shift as the curse was broken at Jesus death, burial and resurrection , we are now in a garden that is full and complete. A place where we shift our mindset off of gain but instead to receive.In Exodus 16 the Israelites had to receive just what God gave while they were in the wilderness and He gave manna which is the bread of life ! Manna means “What is it” and it was delivered from the realms of life, it was pure, holy, tasted sweet like honey crackers, it was undefiled, and it was the fullness of Jesus. If you can be trained by God this month to subdue your flesh as he asked them to do on Shabbat you will enter a place where He will be your all.Read Exodus 16:27 -30 In this place everything, becomes easy and no struggle to gain. You live in a realm of faith where you know it's coming ! All that you need in every situation will be there. This is the identity He is trying to establish with the Israelites in the wilderness.It's like He's saying “Chill out - I've got this - stop trying to control it or manipulate it. That doesn't work in my garden. ” In His garden or heavenly places we steward in faith, this is a place where we ultimately know He has control over what belongs to Him and we're just helping Him tend it or till it. We are not really stopping anything or starting anything - we're simply in agreement with Him! We're in agreement with what He says and we obey Him from this place !Remember from 1 Samuel 5:22, ““Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,and to hearken than the fat of rams. “Read Deuteronomy 8 :3 Manna is the Word made manifest as Jesus was the Word made manifestWhen the Israelites ate manna they ate the Word. They partook of the completeness and wholeness of nothing missing or broken in Him!What is He saying to you this month ? Just do it ! I'll be there and I'll provide! Step out on faith !Read 1 Corinthians 15:20 We are the fruit of the first born Jesus and we are the evidence that His resurrection was complete!As we prepare for Feast of Shavuot or Pentecost , God is asking us to present ourselves as living sacrifices or fruit unto Him! He is multiplying and bringing order this month.Start the Month of Iyar with a copy of Dr Candice new book “365 Prophetic Revelations from Hebrew Calender”- go to www.Candice Smithyman.comhttps://amzn.to/4aQYoR0Classes START NEXT WEEK- Get signed up Now! - Join DREAM MENTORS and BECOME A CERTIFIED COACH!Do you want to be trained as good disciples or biblical life coach ? Do you need to experience transformation in your souls so you can be the best God is calling you to be. Go to www.dreammentors.orgFREE Zoom CALL with Dr Candice - It's time now to sign up for our next Ascension class and join Dr. Candice's Glory Road Community!Maximize Your Prophetic Potential monthly class is Wednesday April 30 at 10 am and 6 pm EST. Next one after that is Monday May 12 at 10 am and 6 pm EST. You can choose which one. Sign Up here —http://bit.ly/4gfRKXm

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 30th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Gospel of Luke 5:16: “So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.” Who am I talking about here? I am talking about the Son of God, I am talking about Jesus Christ, I am talking about Immanuel - God with us. Now, if He had to do that, how much more should you and I be doing that? He did it often, not now and again. Oh my dear friend, I think this message is aimed more at me than it is at you! Contemplation - when you contemplate something. I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word, “contemplate”. It means to look at thoughtfully, to think about, to think deeply and at length. It says that to contemplate is to look at, gaze at, stare at, view, regard, examine, inspect, observe, (are you getting the story?) survey, study. He contemplated. We need to ponder, you and I, how many times are we taking time out to think about the way forward? We don't, do we? We just go for it, we wing it. It is one of my favourite things and I hate myself for it. There is no time left in the world to wing it. We need to concentrate on something called time management. Remember Jesus was never late, He was never early, He was always spot on time. We think about Lazarus, His friend in the grave. “Lord, if You had come, my brother would have lived,” but the Lord commanded him to be raised from the dead. You know, it is first the mountain, and then the ministry, or your work or whatever else. If you don't spend time up the mountain, not a literal mountain, but time in the morning, praying, reading the word of God, and contemplating about what you are going to do that day, you will make some very poor decisions. Now, let us start to think.I remember, very clearly, sitting at the banks of the mighty Zambezi River, which separates Zambia from Zimbabwe, about to go across that river on a pontoon with that 20-ton Mercedes Benz truck for six weeks, leaving my young wife and children back on the farm. I was contemplating things very seriously, crying out to God to protect my family and He did. We need to hear from God first before we make any decisions. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,Goodbye.

Today,we're looking at Luke16:22-26, and we're talking about the subject of hell.Unless the rapture takes place first, everyoneon planet Earth will die. We will all face judgment and the Bible teaches wewill either go to a place of eternal torment, a literal hell, or to wonderfulplace of paradise called heaven. Jesus spoke about a literal hell on manyoccasions. Goddid not create hell for human beings. He created paradise, heaven for humanbeings. Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you" (John 14). Buthell was created for the devil and his angel, as Matthew 25:41 explains, whereJesus speaks to those on the left, saying, "Depart from me, you cursed,into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." Thispassage in Luke 16, from the lips of Jesus refutes so-called "soulsleep," for both the rich man and Lazarus were conscious, one enjoyingcomfort and the other suffering torment. It is a solemn thing to ponder one'seternal destiny and realize the reality of divine punishment. Itappears from reading the context of the whole Scripture that there is a place,somewhere in the heart of the earth today, called Sheol or Hades, and it's theplace of the departed dead. In this passage of Scripture, and what I believefrom reading all of Scripture, in the Old Testament, before the resurrection ofChrist, everyone went to this place called Sheol, which had two compartments,as Jesus points out here, with a gulf fixed between them so you couldn't passfrom one to the other. One part was a place we call hell, a place of fire andtorment. The rich man died, and in this place of torment, he lifted up hiseyes, and he was in torment. Four times in this passage, the word"torment" is used. It's a place of flame, a place of pain, a place oftorment, and a place where you still have your feelings. Inthe Old Testament, everyone who died either died in faith, looking forward tothe death of Christ on the cross through the sacrifices, or they died and wentto the hell side. This was up to the cross and the resurrection of Christ. Webelieve that when Jesus died and was buried, during that time, He emptied theparadise side, bringing those souls to the third heaven. Paul talked abouthaving an experience where he was caught up to the third heaven (2 Corinthians12:2). He says in the epistles, "To be absent from the body is to bepresent with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:8). Remember Stephen, when hewas being stoned to death, saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God (Acts7:55-56). Remember Jesus said, "You will be with me" (John 14:3). Iam convinced today that when believers die, they go to the third heaven (2Corinthians 12:2). Because, “to be absent from the body is to be presentwith the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8).  When lost people die, they still go to thisplace called Hades, the place called hell, where there is torment. I'mconvinced that, according to Scripture, one day hell will give up the dead thatare in it. There will be the Great White Throne Judgment at the end of themillennium, and the devil, his angels, and everyone who rejects Jesus Christ asSavior, will end up in what is called “the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:11-15).That's where the false prophet and the beast were cast just before themillennial reign of Christ (Revelation 19:20). Myfriend, God didn't create hell for you and me. He created heaven for us.Eternity is in our hearts, and today we can, by faith, receive Jesus Christ andnever have to fear going to this place of torment because we have a placeprepared for us in heaven by the Lord Himself. We must make a choice. Goddoesn't send people to hell. They send themselves to hell when they rejectJesus Christ. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11).  Jesusloves us and died for us and Scripture tells us, "Today is the day ofsalvation; behold, now is the accepted time (2 Corinthians 6:1-2). Please trustHim today to be your Savior!

1. A needed call2. A glorious call3. A beneficial call

In this sermon, Craig opens up John 7 as we revisit our recurring sermon series ‘Remember Jesus'.

Scripture: 2 Timothy 2:8 The post Remember Jesus appeared first on Hope Bible Church.

Remember Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 2:8-13) by Faith Family Church Oak Grove

Remember Jesus’ trial before Pilate? Who were the people in that mob shouting, “Crucify!?” And what do we know about the Roman Centurion? What should we learn from the women who braved that crucifixion crowd? This week on The Land and the Book, we’ll meet more of the “The Cast of Characters at the Cross.” Plus--what’s really happening in the Middle East right now? We’ll bring you all the headlines—from a biblical perspective—on The Land and the Book with Charlie Dyer and Jon Gauger.Donate to Moody Radio: http://moodyradio.org/donateto/landandthebookSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What did Jesus mean, “The Truth will set you free?” Free from what?  The 8th chapter of John today contains aspects of the teachings of Jesus that we have to think around and put into context to get the correct meaning.The critics of Jesus were usually those whose thought processes were mechanical.  They thought they had him cornered, if he said the Mosaic law should be observed and she should be stoned they would probably have done so, or got others to, and then blamed Jesus before the Roman authorities because the Jews had no right to put anyone to death – that is why they brought Jesus before Pilate.. See John 18 v.31.If Jesus has said something different, they would have denounced him before the people for not upholding the law!   His reaction confounded them – and after he said “Let him who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” [v.7] they slunk away from Jesus, no one was without sin among them.Only Jesus was without sin – and he said to her, “Woman, where are they?  Has no one condemned you?  She said, ‘No one Lord'  And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.'” [v.10,11]  Notice how she addresses Jesus as “Lord”!  She saw him as far more than a “teacher” which is how the Jews addressed him.Jesus speaks to all who come to him – in the same words as he spoke to the woman – whatever our failures have been, and the closer we come to “the light of the world” the more we are aware of those failures – but we also learn the truth of his words, “Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” [v.12] and all the “darkness” in our character will be obliterated, indeed Christ will then be “formed in you.” [Gal. 4 v.19]Jesus went on to tell them, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free” [v.31,32[    The key action on our part is to “abide” in the word of Jesus.  John uses the Gk word for ‘abide' more than 40 times in his gospel and the translators render it variously as ‘continue', ‘dwell'  ‘remaining' etc. Are you abiding in his word? Is the word ‘abiding' in you?  If the answer is ‘Yes' – you have been set free!Jesus made the point, “ … I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin” – it has become part of their character.  But “if the Son sets you free you will be free indeed” [v.36]   He told the religious leaders, “…you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.” [v.37]   May it have found a place in us – in you – or will soon do so. Remember Jesus said, “Whoever is of God hears the words of God.” [v.47] – and as we read – we “hear.”

The post Do you Remember Jesus? appeared first on Greencastle Otterbein United Brethren in Christ Church.

Be Bold & Listen To God!Acts 18:9-10 “One night, the Lord appeared to Paul in a vision and said, “Do not be afraid. Continue with your preaching, and do not be silent, for I am with you. No one will attack you or try to harm you, for there are many in this city who are my people.”I always get a bit jealous when I hear verses that say the Lord appeared to so and so in a dream or an angel visited them.  Then I remembered that although I am not getting visited by angels, that I am aware of, although if you listened to the episode on angels last week, you know we aren't always aware when we are visited by an angel.  Although I am not aware of any visits from angels or the Lord in my sleep, the Lord does show up and talk to us each and every Thursday during prayer group.  He also talks to me during my prayer time, so I really have no reason to be jealous.  I don't know if you ever felt like I did.  Have you ever been jealous that some people seem to hear the world of the Lord and you can't?  If this is the case, I want to assure you that He wants to talk to you.  God is always talking to His people; we just struggle to listen sometimes.  If you are struggling to hear the Lord.  If you wish you could ask Him a question and really hear an answer I want you to know you can.  It is possible.  If you cannot hear Him, it is not because He is mad at you or because He is punishing you.  There could be a number of reasons why you can't hear Him.  Maybe you are harboring unforgiveness to others, which can block all kinds of graces.  Maybe you don't believe you can hear Him, so you are afraid to sit in the silence and give Him time to talk.  Maybe you don't have any quiet time in your day?  Think about how hard it is to hear someone that you are intentionally trying to hear when you are in a crowded restaurant or on a subway train.  Look through your day.  If someone was following you around trying to talk to you all day, would there be any times when you would hear them?  The world we live in is busy and noisy.  It is not often that we sit and listen to the Word of God.  This can change.  If you want to start hearing from God, all you have to do is listen.  He is already talking to you.  I know that this may sound weird to some of you, and yet I think it is important to tell you.  I often talk with the Lord.  I write Him a letter, and then I write one back to myself and let the Holy Spirit lead what I write in the one back to myself.  I feel the Lord is constantly telling me, “Thank you for listening; not many do.”  God is not mad; He is not punishing you, He is patiently waiting for you to come to Him and ask Him what He thinks.  He is waiting to tell you how much He loves you until you take a minute to listen.  Can you give God 5 minutes of your time today to just listen?  If you are quiet, if you are asking the Lord to talk, and you can't hear anything, then you can command the spirit of deaf ears to leave immediately.  You can command your spiritual ears to open.  You can ask God again and expect that He will answer as He always does!I am not sure that had a lot or anything to do with the verse, and yet when I feel led by the Holy Spirit, I just agree and go along for the ride.  Back to the verse.  It says, “One night, the Lord appeared to Paul in a vision and said, “Do not be afraid. Continue with your preaching, and do not be silent, for I am with you. No one will attack you or try to harm you, for there are many in this city who are my people.”  I think this verse is a testament to God's love for Paul.  He knew He was afraid and He came to talk to him and to reassure him.  It sounds like Paul wanted to leave the place where he was.  Paul was in Corinth and that was not a nice town.  Its nickname is “Sin City.”  I have heard Father Mike liken it to parts of Las Vegas.  Paul was preaching at the synagogue to the Jews & the Greeks, but they didn't really want to hear what he had to say.When they started to oppose him and hurl insults at him, he decided to leave the synagogue and search out the gentiles.  In case anyone listening is like me, and you are not sure who the gentiles were or what that word means, let me explain.  You were considered a gentile if you were not Jewish.  It was not a certain race of people or a certain tribe of people; it was all people who were not Jewish.  God came to Paul in his dreams and told him not to be afraid, that He was with him, and that he would not be attacked or harmed. God is saying this to us, too!  He is with each one of us, and He is protecting us from all evil.  I was typing up the minutes for my prayer group, and we had several prophecies that seemed to confirm this.  There were two that I thought were especially good to go with this verse.The first one says, “I watch over you, my children. All of you are my children. I break the sword of the enemy who would come against you. You have nothing to fear, for I am there for each and every one of you in each and every trial. I will never forsake my children or leave my children. I will defend you in battle. I have sent you the power of the Spirit, and He will give you all that you need to do what you have been called to do.”  Isn't that amazing?  God is telling us that He is here for us.  He will defend us in battle and any other situation.  You may be thinking you are not in a battle; you are not in the military.  Each one of us is in a battle whether we know it or not.  Each one of us is in a spiritual battle, and sometimes, the enemy can take it out on our family members.  We need to stand firm and hold onto this word from God and all the other words He has given us.  God will not let the enemy win.  He will protect us.  All we need to do is turn to Him.The second word I thought went along with this verse says, “My children take my hand. Realize that I am with you. Go into the world without fear. I am holding onto your hand. There is no need to fear I am your God. I will protect you. I will defend you. Smile that you are mine. Smile my children. I am with you till the end of time. Come closer, my children, come closer so that I can reveal my mysteries to you so you, in turn, can share them with the world. I am your Lord, I am your God, and I am all-powerful. I hold onto your hand. Move forward, move forward with joy, for you are mine.”I love how gentle God can be.  He is talking about protecting us, and He is doing it in this last verse as any Father would.  Think back to when you were little.  When you were walking with your dad, you were probably holding his hand.  If you weren't holding it all the time, you at least know it is there if you need it.  God is giving us this visual of walking with Him through life and asking us to take His hand and walk side by side with Him; what an amazing visual that is for me. Yes, please, Lord, I would love to walk alongside you! I would love to hold your hand so you can protect me and defend me against this crazy world.  I also like how he ended the word with, “Move forward with joy, for you are mine.”  We are His children, isn't that amazing!! God is so good!Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to protect and bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we are so grateful you are protecting us!  We are so grateful you are a loving Father who wants to hold our hand and walk through this life with us.  Lord, we ask that you help us to be able to hear you when you are talking to us.  We ask that you open our spiritual ears and allow us to converse with you.  I ask that everyone listening to this episode hear your word just as they do in the prayer group meeting.  Lord, we thank you for the words above, and we ask that you help them take route in our hearts.  If anyone listening to this episode had a difficult relationship with their father, I ask that you let these two messages go deep down in their hearts and take route.  You are a good and loving Father to all your children! We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus!  I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow.  Remember Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in September 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “My little ones, nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate you from me. When I tell you that I hold you in the palm of my hand, I tell you the truth. No matter what happens, no matter what you're facing, no matter what you're worried about, what you fret about, no matter how anxious you get, I hold you in the palm of my hand. My hand is cupped around your life in a gentle, strong, loving way.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Jesus is not just alive from the dead, but he is alive as the King who will reign forever — of his kingdom there will be no end.

Jake teaches on 2 Timothy 2:8-13.

AM

Listen to Pastor Carl Catalanotto at The Tabernacle Church in Covington, LA, for "Fisherman to Disciples," part of the "Cast Your Nets" series. This message highlights evangelism as the core "DNA" of the church, focused on saving souls.Discover key motivations for sharing your faith:Compelled by the Holy Spirit to witnessUnderstanding the fear of the Lord and accountabilityDriven by Christ's loveRecognizing the necessity to preach the gospelLearn about "casting your nets" in daily life and being ready for divine appointments to share Jesus. Understand we're saving people from sin and eternal judgment. As salt and light, believers have a vital purpose. Remember Jesus' promise to be with us as we share our story.Tune in now to ignite your passion for evangelism.

2 Timothy 2:8-13 Encouragement # 1: If you remember anything, REMEMBER JESUS! (v.8) Encouragement # 2: It is IMPOSSIBLE to IMPRISON the word of God! (v.9) Encouragement # 3: My SUFFERING is not in VAIN (v.10) Encouragement # 4: You can take God's PROMISES to the spiritual BANK! (v.11-13)

Join us as we continue our series in 2 Timothy and Pastor Israel Martinez shares from 2 Timothy 2:8-13.

Remember who has all authority. Remember who came for the outsider. Remember the resurrection. Remember Jesus. Get rid of all the barriers we place between God and ourselves, and God and others… Clean out the clutter and make space for what really matters. Andy Turner continues in week 3 of the Dawn of Redemption series, teaching from John 2.

Remember Jesus & Examine Ourselves  - 1 Corinthians 12:12-31  |   Series: Gathered & Gifted for God's Glory  |   Sam Holm, Lead Pastor   |   Preached 3-2-25 10:45am   Tag: Corinthians, Worship, Spiritual Gifts, Sacrament, Preach, Teach, Church, Gather, Growth, Community, Believers, Glory, Holy Spirit, Member, Embrace, Unity, Spirit-filled, Gifts, Body, Together, Sing, Harmony

Remember Jesus & Examine Ourselves  - 1 Corinthians 12:12-31  |   Series: Gathered & Gifted for God's Glory  |   Sam Holm, Lead Pastor   |   Preached 3-2-25 10:45am   Tag: Corinthians, Worship, Spiritual Gifts, Sacrament, Preach, Teach, Church, Gather, Growth, Community, Believers, Glory, Holy Spirit, Member, Embrace, Unity, Spirit-filled, Gifts, Body, Together, Sing, Harmony

2 Timothy 2:8-13

Daily Dose of Hope February 20, 2025 Day 5 of Week 47   Scripture:  Zechariah 6-8; 1 John 4 Hello, everyone.  It's Daily Dose of Hope time!  Welcome back to the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope Church daily Bible reading plan.    Our Old Testament reading is Zechariah 6-8.  In chapter 6, there is another vision.  This one involves Joshua, the high priest, who is presented with a crown.  He is a symbol of the future Messiah.  But God makes it clear through Zechariah that all of these visions/dreams will come to fruition only if the current generation of God's people are faithful and obey the covenant.  Then, in chapters 7-8, we have a conclusion to the visions, well sort of.  The people, much discouraged, ask Zechariah if the Kingdom is going to come soon; can they stop grieving for what was lost?  He responds that the Kingdom will come only when they become the kind of people who will be faithful to God and ready to participate in his new Kingdom.  Interestingly, being this kind of people isn't about fasting and following rules.  It's goes so much deeper.  I think we see this in chapter 7, verses 8-10, And the word of the Lord came again to Zechariah: “This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.'   Our New Testament reading is 1 John 4.  I think I need to provide some more background for this letter. 1 John was written by the apostle John specifically to the Ephesian church in the late first century.  Some false teachers had infiltrated the church, causing really serious issues, and a schism occurred in their church.  A lot of people left the church fellowship and those remaining were shaken.  It's like the foundation was ripped from underneath them.  And so John sends this letter, in order to encourage them and offer truth that would give them something solid to stand on again.    Let's talk about chapter 4.  John wanted to make sure that those to whom he was writing understood that God's love wasn't some abstract concept.  The false teachers would have said that God's love was not concrete but simply theoretical.  If you deny Jesus coming in the flesh, then you certainly can't understand the extent of God's love, and you are walking in darkness.  If you think sin doesn't matter, then you certainly can't understand God's love.  Not really.  And if you don't understand God's love, then you aren't going to understand living his love out in community.    John tells the church at Ephesus and he tells us today that true love has its ultimate source and origin in God.  God is the definition of love; love expresses who God is.  Of course, God's love that John is speaking of isn't like human love.  It's agape.  God's love, agape, is sacrificial, pure love, that isn't connected to emotions but is a choice to love, even when that love is not returned.   God's love is not some abstract concept as the false teachers would have you believe.  It's expressed in action.  God made love real and present by sending Jesus to live among us and to die for us on a cross.  We continue to see God's active love among us through the gift of the Holy Spirit.  This week, I ran across this statement, “God's love is a truth more basic and reliable than the ground we walk on and the air we breathe.”   And yet, we struggle with this.  I've seen this over and over again.  We have a really difficult time understanding that God loves us, just as we are.  The world hasn't always been kind.  We grow up thinking we have to measure up, that love has conditions.  To be loved and accepted, we have to look a certain way, meet a certain standard, and it usually is above what we can reach.  Because this is the truth:  God's love does not depend on our initiative not how worthy we are.  We don't have to reach out to God or even believe in God to be loved by him.  He is the one chasing us!  God loves us before we ever get our act together.  We don't have to measure up or meet any criteria or standard to be lovable.  God just loves us whether we deserve it or not.  Which is good, because none of us deserve it.    And this is how he showed us his vast, amazing love:  He sent Jesus. Remember Jesus was God with flesh on.  He came voluntarily to demonstrate a different way of doing life AND then he went to the cross.  He died, serving as the final, ultimate sacrifice for sin.  You see, when Jesus died on the cross, his blood atoned for our sins.  For all of our sins.  When we open ourselves up to God, what we find is that even the darkest places and the ugliest parts of ourselves are not beyond God's reach.  Nobody is so broken or dirty or flawed that God cannot touch them, redeem them. So, if we believe in him, turn away from our old way of doing life, then we receive salvation.  You see, when we believe in Jesus Christ, God no longer sees our sin and our mess, he only sees the blood of Jesus.  And it gets better - not only does this ensure that we get to spend eternity with Jesus, we receive new life right now, today.  The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God himself, comes and dwells within us, changing us from the inside out.  We have the ability to live differently and to love differently.  We are upheld, surrounded, and totally encased in God's sacrificial, active love.    And of course we struggle with this, because nothing on earth is this extraordinary.  This is the best news in the history of the world.  We can walk with Jesus.  I can walk with Jesus and experience his incredible love.  You can walk with Jesus and experience his incredible love.  And it's a free gift.  We just have to say yes to accepting it.   Accepting God's love and saying yes to Jesus is step one.  You aren't done there though.  I think too often we have treated salvation as the destination of our faith.  It's really the foundation of our faith, it's the starting point.    Here is the rest of it --- since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  Because God loved us so sacrificially, we are to love others.  This is the thing:  to know God's love is to overflow with God's love.  Such life-giving love is much too powerful to keep to ourselves.  And God never intended for us to keep it to ourselves.    Let's go back to John's context.  These first-century Christians were shaken.  It probably felt like there were people trying to destroy their church family.  I'm guessing they weren't feeling too loving.  And here John is saying to them, “Since God loved us, we ought to love one another.”  I'm thinking this may have reminded them of a few things that Jesus himself said about loving your enemy and praying for those who persecute you.  Matthew 5:46-47,  If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?  And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?  By our nature, human love tends to be selfish and conditional.  We love those people who love us.  We love those people we like, who think like us, who make us feel comfortable.    And yet, just as God's love has no boundaries, Christian love has no boundaries.  We are called to demonstrate love to those we might think are unlovable.  We are to love those who think differently, act differently, and look differently.  We are to love self-righteous people and love obnoxious people.  We are to love those who vote differently than us.    I will say this:  Loving someone doesn't mean you have to agree with their behavior, speech, or lifestyle.  Love has gotten a bit obscured in progressive Christianity.  Just because God loves someone doesn't mean God wants them to continue in sin.  It's not a blanket acceptance of all behavior policy.  Afterall, God loved me enough that he didn't want to leave me the way he found me.  And he is still shaping me, convicting me, and molding me so that I can look more like him.  That being said, we can't expect unbelievers to speak or behave like believers.  Rarely are people lectured into the Kingdom, argued into the Kingdom, and they are never ever shamed into the Kingdom.  They are almost always LOVED into the Kingdom.    Just as God's love isn't passive in our lives, our love should not be passive when it comes to those around us.  Because of what God's love has done for us, we are driven, compelled to demonstrate ACTIVELY God's love toward other people.  We might even say that love is the litmus test of an authentic relationship with God.  Demonstrating Christian love is what confirms the reality of our spiritual walk with God.  There's one scholar who defines the word Christian love as a “consuming passion for the well-being of others,” and this love obviously has it's wellspring, its source, in God's love for us.    Here's our question:  Do you have a consuming passion for the well-being of others?    Blessings, Pastor Vicki  

Inside our theme of love this month, this week we are focusing on teaching our kids what love is. One of the things we love about God's love is hearing how much He loves us, will forgive us, and show us incredible mercy and grace, no matter what we do. But then the very tough thing about God's love is, as sinners, we struggle when He tells us to love others that we do not want to love. Teaching our kids that kind of unconditional love will be one of the hardest things we ever do—to encourage them to follow God in loving someone with His love and grace that we do not want to love and don't think we even can love.Much of Jesus' teaching was counter-cultural then, and it certainly is today. The religious leaders of His day wanted to separate people into two categories: acceptable and unacceptable. And those men would make that determination without God. In fact, Jesus' teaching against their standards ended up getting Him on their unacceptable list. Listen closely to this passage as I read. No matter how many times you may have heard it, try and listen with fresh ears about how God wants us to love …“But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also. Give to anyone who asks; and when things are taken away from you, don't try to get them back. Do to others as you would like them to do to you.“If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them! And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much! And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit? Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a full return.“Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate. (Luke 6:27-36 NLT)Love your enemies? … That's a cute catchphrase until you actually feel like someone is your enemy and is working to make your life miserable. Loving that person feels impossible. Do good to those who hate you? Bless those who curse you? Really, Jesus? But what is so great about Jesus' teaching here is He told us why He wants us to do that.In short, Jesus said… “if people who have no God, who don't believe in God, who care nothing about Me, can be kind to those who are kind to them and love those who love them, then you don't need Me to do that, do you? But now, loving your enemies? Doing good to those who hate you? You are most definitely going to need Me to help you do that. Why? Because by yourself, you can't!”Now, to be clear, turning the other cheek does not have anything to do with abuse or letting someone run all over you. Remember—Jesus was the guy who got angry and cleared people out of the temple with a whip. But to love like God and to teach your kids to love like He does, that's going to take Jesus giving you the power and ability every time.Let's say it this way, if we're going to call ourselves His kids, we need to act like He's our Dad.Let's pray together: “Heavenly Father, this loving my enemies thing is so hard. Doing good to someone I deem as bad, blessing people I can't stand, that feels impossible. But you are the God that makes the impossible possible. Help me, Jesus, to love like You and to teach my kids these really hard things about how to love like You. Because me and my kids are Your children. As above, so below.”

Have you ever used phrases like "you are asking for trouble," "playing with fire," "rocking the boat?" I wonder if the disciples ever felt like that as they followed Jesus into difficulty. At the end of Mark 4, Jesus whisks the disciples away from the multitude and takes them directly into the mess. In chapter 5 they go from that mess, to a maniac (demoniac) named legion.  The Gospel on the Ground is a gospel that seeks opportunities wherever it will be needed. Remember Jesus said in Mark 2:17, "those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick." Are we passionate about finding a place for the gospel? Passionate enough to rock the boat, to find a mess, to get uncomfortable for the cause? 

Have you ever used phrases like "you are asking for trouble," "playing with fire," "rocking the boat?" I wonder if the disciples ever felt like that as they followed Jesus into difficulty. At the end of Mark 4, Jesus whisks the disciples away from the multitude and takes them directly into the mess. In chapter 5 they go from that mess, to a maniac (demoniac) named legion.  The Gospel on the Ground is a gospel that seeks opportunities wherever it will be needed. Remember Jesus said in Mark 2:17, "those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick." Are we passionate about finding a place for the gospel? Passionate enough to rock the boat, to find a mess, to get uncomfortable for the cause? 

Incivility leads to many harmful effects on employees and organizations. Coworker incivility has been linked to higher levels of employee burnout and lots of strain and stress. For the organization or the company, incivility has been related to decreased satisfaction and eventually decreased performance. And here's the thing about incivility: it is contagious! An employee who is subjected to lack of civility, lack of good manners, lack of anyone seeming to care about them, often retaliates with uncivil acts of their own. It can spiral out of control within an organization rather quickly. But the good news is courtesy and good manners can be contagious, too. Remember Jesus has called us as his followers to be lights in a dark world. This means we not only are not caught up in workplace incivility, but we also actively and intentionally try to change the culture. But how? As I've often said, everything starts at the top, so if you are in a management job or in a place of influence, you should model what civil and courteous behavior looks like. Your level of courtesy and consideration toward others will trickle down to those who work for you and with you. As a manager, you are always “on,” which means you don't have the luxury of letting down your guard, because your behavior has more impact than others. By setting the tone for the organization, managers and those in places of influence can help create a culture of simple courtesy, good manners, and caring about others. As Christ followers, here is our standard: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others (Philippians 2:3-4). That is very civil behavior, and with the power of God's Spirit, you can be a person who values others above yourself.

I Am Anointed (Identity Series)Psalm 23:5-6 “You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.”There is a lot to like about this verse.  First, it starts out by saying that God will prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.  I don't have to be worried about my enemies as God has got me.  He is my shield and my refuge.  Now he is saying we will prepare a feast for me.  When someone is preparing a meal for us, they are not usually stressed out about it.  They don't worry about all the things going on around them.  Picture this: there is chaos all around you, and yet in front of you is this beautifully set up dining room table.  You have a seat, and God is bringing you a feast, one course at a time.  He is not concerned with your enemies because He knows they can't touch you.  You are not concerned either because you just feel so at home, so taken care of.  Isn't that a beautifully relaxing image?  Next, the verse says that God honors us by anointing our heads with oil.  Did you know that you have an anointing in your life?  We all do. Did you know through your baptism you were anointed to be priest, prophet, and king?   It's true, just as Christ was all three of these, you are also anointed to be these three things to your community.  What does that mean for us?  Let's start with the priest.  Drawing on the priesthood of the Old Testament, a priest is one who offers sacrifices (see Genesis 14:18; Exodus 29:38- 42; Leviticus 23:6,8). Some sacrifices are personal, and some are on behalf of others. These sacrifices will look different for each one of us, depending on our circumstances.  However, sacrifice, to some degree, should be a part of our everyday life.  I have tried to embrace this a little more this year, so I am fasting from one thing each month.  I will switch it up each month, but there will always be something I am fasting from.  I think this will help me to appreciate things more and it will also show me that I am not a slave to that thing.  For instance, if I feel like I just can't stop eating chocolate, then I will fast from that for a month.  By the end of the year, I will have shown God and myself that I do not need these things.  I will have also made a small sacrifice each month for 12 months.Next, we have a prophet.  A prophet is a spokesperson for God or one who speaks on God's behalf (see Exodus 4:30; Deuteronomy 18:18; Isaiah 42:19). In the Old and New Testaments, prophets called people to a different way of life.  Can we be a spokesperson for God by how we live our lives?  Can we live in a way that when people see us, they think to themselves, “I want what they have?”  Can we call others to a different way of life, not necessarily with our words, but with our love?  Can we love others as Jesus did? Can we speak love and light into the world, into people's lives?  Can we be prophets?Lastly, we are anointed as kings.  What are kings called to do? Usually rule over others.  We are called to rule over ourselves first and foremost. We are all responsible for making sure we are living our lives according to God's laws.  Most kings are called to rule over others; however, as Christians, we are called to servant leadership.  A servant leader leads by serving others. In other words, servant leaders place the interests and needs of their followers ahead of their own self-interests and needs. Generally, they value the development of their followers, building their communities, acting authentically, and sharing power.Now that we know what each one of these means, hopefully, we can apply this to our everyday life.  God has anointed us in our everyday tasks, too.  For instance, I was anointed to be a mother and a wife.  That was where God called me, and that is what He set me apart to do.  Maybe you are anointed to be a doctor, a lawyer, a pharmacy tech, a garbage collector, a grandmother, a teacher, whatever it is, God has anointed you to do it.  Your baptismal anointing is not meant to replace any of those other calls on your life.  You are anointed to be a priest, prophet, and king in the life you are already living.  Think about your day-to-day life; how can you incorporate sacrifice into your days?  How can you be more of a prophet spreading the Lord's Word in your daily lives?  How can you be more of a servant leader right now, right where you are?The verse then goes on to say my cup overflows with blessings.  This is also great imagery.  I love to picture a teacup as we grew up drinking tea in my family.  Although I don't picture a regular tea cup, the image I am getting is an English fancy tea cup from a china set.  The tea is being poured into it with a steady stream, and the cup is overflowing and running all over the table and even onto the floor.  This is how many blessings God has for you. He wants to rain down blessings upon blessings on all of His children.  Sometimes, we get in the way of God's blessings.  Sometimes, we don't appreciate the blessings that we have, so why would God give us more?  Sometimes, we find ourselves complaining about all that is going on in our lives instead of praising God and giving thanksgiving.  God has ridiculous blessings for you.  All you have to do is believe that and then praise God for any blessings, even if they are small.  If you can be faithful to the small, He will increase your blessings.  He is a good, good Father!The ending of this verse is beautiful.  “Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.”  We had this word pursue the other day.  I love that word.  This verse is saying that God's goodness and unfailing love will pursue us all the days of our lives.  Isn't that wonderful?  We don't have to chase after God because He is already chasing after us.  All we have to do is let ourselves be caught by God's goodness and unfailing love.  Unfailing love is not like any love we can find here on earth.  It is an incredible love that knows no limits, that knows no boundaries.  God's love never leaves us.  No matter how much we may try to run from it.  No matter how much we try to reject it or send it back.  No matter how much we might mess up.  God's unfailing love will pursue you every single day of your life.  How incredible is that?  And the very last part of the verse says, “I will live in the house of the Lord forever.”  Yes, please!  I want to live in the house of the Lord forever. I think we all do.  It is so amazing to me that God has an open-door policy to heaven.  All are welcome.  Come as you are in your broken and wounded state.  You do not have to earn your way. You don't have to do anything to get there.  Jesus has earned you your right to be there.  All you have to do is surrender to God and let Him help you. Let Him give you the strength to follow Him.  Following God is not always an easy road but it is a rewarding road and one that leads to spending eternity living in the house of the Lord.  Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening today.  Lord, we thank you for loving us like you do.  We thank you for preparing us for a feast in the presence of our enemies.  We thank you for the ridiculous blessings you want to give us, and we are sorry if we get in your way of doing that.  We thank you for anointing us priests, prophets, and kings, and we ask for your help in discovering what that means for each one of us and how we can incorporate that anointing into our lives.  We love you, Lord, and we can't wait to live in your house forever!  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name. Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I hope to see you this evening on mentoring. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember Jesus loves you and so do I! Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in August 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “My children, I call you by name. I know each and every one of you. Let your light shine so that you can help remove the darkness.”  www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Series: Lord's Supper CommentsService: Sun AMType: SermonSpeaker: Nagesh Chakali

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 20th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start off in the Book of Psalms 37:7: ”Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; …” Then we go straight to the Book of Hosea 12:6: “And wait on your God continually.” Continually - we must wait on the Lord patiently this year as we start 2025. No more rushing around. That's what gets us into trouble. You see, King Saul, the first king of Israel, would not wait for the prophet Samuel to come and offer up a sacrifice to God before the battle started, and what happened? He lost his kingship. He lost his kingdom because he would not wait.This is not a quick-fix religion that you and I are involved in. No, no, no. This is a lifestyle. Wait continually, not a one-off thing, it's a lifestyle. You know, that's one thing farming has taught me, is to be patient because the farmer that's rushing around never reaps anything that's worth anything. We need to be patient. Remember Jesus, when they called Him, His best friend Lazarus was sick and dying. He came four days late but what happened? Oh, one of the greatest miracles in the New Testament - Lazarus was raised from the dead! Jesus was never early, Jesus was never late, Jesus was always spot on time. We need to get into that habit.My late dad was involved in the 2nd world war and was up in North Africa with the South African troops when he was caught by Rommel and the Germans. They put him in a prisoner-of-war camp for three and a half years, but my mother was back in Britain and she was in the Air Force. Those two were going to get married. My dad said, ”I'll come out to Africa. I'll make some money and then I'll come back to Scotland and I'll marry you.” But of course the war got in between them. Do you know that they waited patiently for each other for no less than six years? And I want to tell you that it was the most beautiful marriage. I am so blessed to have been raised in a family of love.Today, wait for that thing that God is going to give you. Do not rush ahead and He will give it to you in His time. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, Goodbye.

I Am Known (Identity Series)Psalm 139:1-4 "O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.”I read a post on Facebook yesterday that pointed me to Psalm 139.  It was about different verse in the psalm, but when I read the whole thing I realized it was a really good one.  They all probably are great.  I have heard if you are going to start reading the Bible for the first time you should start with the Gospels, or with the Psalms.  That must mean they are pretty good.  These verses stood out to me in particular because they talk about how well God knows us.  Being Known is one of the six stages of Attachment developed by psychologist Gordon Neufeld.  His model presents six stages of attachment that create the foundations for virtually every relationship your children will ever have.  Since we are God's children, This is important to us as well.  I will list the six stages and then will focus on Being Known.  The stages are Proximity, Sameness, Belonging or Loyalty, Significance, Love & Being Known.Reading through those I think this verse may touch on more than one of them.  However, let's begin with Being Known and go from there.  Every single one of us longs to be known.  This is why we get upset when our loved ones get us a gift we don't like.  It is not necessarily the gift that upsets us, it is the fact that they didn't know us well enough to know we wouldn't like it.  God isn't like that.  God is omniscient, which means he has infinite awareness, understanding, and insight.  Another definition is that He possesses universal or complete knowledge.  God knows everything about you.  He can read your thoughts, he knows your actions and He also knows your heart behind your actions.  God knows why you did all the things you did.  This can be scary for some people because they feel they don't want God to know everything about them.  They feel they are not worthy of being known.  Some people might worry that God knows all they have done because they have done some things they are not proud of.  This is all of us actually.  I am sure there is not a single person who has gone through their whole life without doing some things they are not proud of.  We all say the wrong thing sometimes.  We all do the wrong thing sometimes.  We all hurt people intentionally or unintentionally.  The thing to remember is that God is not surprised by our behavior.  He has searched us and He knows us.  This means He knows all of us.  He doesn't just look at the things we did that we wish we hadn't done.  He looks at everything we have done.  He knows our motives behind all we have done.  He looks straight into our heart.  This is a good thing because He sees what we can't see.  He knows that when we acted out and yelled that we hated our parents, we didn't really hate them.  He knows that when we yelled at our spouse or our friend it was really because we were hurting inside, or because we had an awful day at work and needed a safe space to let off steam.  He knows that when we yelled at our children when we caught them doing drugs or something else dangerous it was because we were really scared.  He knows that when we were unkind to the person in line it was because of all the stress and pressure at work.  God Knows Everything!  He gets it.  He understands that our actions aren't who we are.  
He knows that, but do we know that?  Do we give ourselves the grace of examining our behavior after the fact?  Do we allow ourselves forgiveness when we factor in our motives?  I am not saying the things I listed above are good reasons to do those things.  I don't think we should take our frustrations out on our spouse, friends, or kids.  I am not excusing the behaviors, I am explaining them though.  If your friend was super stressed at work and then you called and asked a question and they yelled at you, would you be angry with them?  Would you want to stop being friends with that person?  Would you realize that was out of character and try to find out what was wrong with your friend?  We tend to have so much grace for other people and yet not very much for ourselves.  I would love it if we could change that.  I would love it if we could all start to see ourselves a little more through the Lord's eyes.  The next line says, “You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.”  God knows all your ways.  He knows that you are grumpy before coffee in the morning.  He knows you don't like change.  He knows you don't like to stay up late.  He knows you are irritable if you get hungry.  He also knows you are a great mom, dad, friend.  He knows you are a great employee,  He knows you are a great spouse or partner.  He knows the good, the bad and the ugly and you know what, He still loves you.  He loves you not despite all of it, but because of all of it.  The verse says He knows our words even before we say them. I wish sometimes He would guard my mouth and prevent me from saying some of them.  How about you?  Have you ever wished you hadn't say something?  Have you ever just blurted something out that felt right in the moment and yet you instantly regretted it?  I know I have.  God knows our thoughts and He knows our words.  Again, he knows the thoughts and feelings behind our words.  He knows the feelings that we might not even know.  Sometimes we may feel angry and yet we are just worried or anxious.  God knows this.  God knows our heart, even when we don't.  We are known and loved by God.  We are accepted and loved by God.  God knows us better than anyone we have ever known and He loves us.  I need everyone single one of you to hear that on an individual level today.  You are known by God.  God knows your inner most thoughts and desires.  God knows the why behind your actions.  God sees through all the BS that we put up to protect ourselves and He sees you, the real you.  God loves you!  He loves you right this very second, right as you are.  He isn't waiting for you to become something else, He isn't waiting until to you do this or that, He isn't waiting for you to be perfect.  He knows you and loves you just as you are.  He loves all you imperfections, He loves all the ways you spread His love and His light.  Yes you do, you spread His love and His light just by being you!  God loves you, all of you!!Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today!  Lord, I ask you to open everyone's hearts and minds so they can really hear this message today.  Help each and every listener hear how much you know them and how much you love them.  Help them to feel it down to their core Lord.  We ask you to guard our thoughts and our words.  We pray that our thoughts conform to your thoughts.  Lord you are so amazing.  You know everything about us and you still love us.  Help us to do the same. Help us to know ourselves and still love ourselves.  Soften our hearts o Lord!  We love you and we ask all of this in accordance with you will and in Jesus' holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus! Remember tomorrow is week #3 of the Identity Series in Mentoring. I hope you join me on zoom. It's not too late, Just head over to my website, walkboldlywithjesus.com or click on the link below. I look forward to seeing some of you tomorrow night on zoom and the rest of you you I look forward to meeting you here again again tomorrow.  Remember Jesus loves you and so do I.  Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in July 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “You must trust me, and allow me to do my work in you and through you. My love is for everyone. You will be sanctified as you obey me.”   www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Pastor Jeremiah Chasse preaches on "Remember Jesus" from Mark 14:22-26

Jesus was killed by religion. Isn't that a shocking statement? The One who walked on water and healed countless hurting people was despised, rejected, and killed by the most devout religious people of His day—all so we could spend eternity with Him. That's how much He loves us. Let's live in His love today.

I Am Healed (Identity Series)Isaiah 53:5 “But he was pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes us whole; by his wounds, we were healed.”  I love talking about the Lord's healing.  I love talking about it because it is so amazing and also because I am not sure people believe He is still healing today.  I was at the Encounter Ministries Boston Campus' summer intensive Tuesday night.  That night, the topic was the Prophetic Word.  Wednesday night was going to be all about physical healing.  I was talking with a friend from the prayer group at this event and her neck was really bothering her.  She mentioned she would have to have the girls from the prayer group pray over her the next night at the healing service.  I told her we didn't have to wait until tomorrow, let's do it now.  Just then, one of our teachers came up to us, so she joined in as well.  We prayed a few times with little change.  Then my teacher asked my friend if she believed Jesus could heal her right now.  My friend said absolutely!  My teacher said, “Pain be gone now!” We were praying quietly for a minute and my friend said, “Wait a minute,” and she tried to move her neck all around in circles and side to side.  She said the pain was all gone!  Praise God. God is still healing people today.  He is miraculously healing people quickly and He is also miraculously healing people over time.  For instance, someone Tony works with had a stroke and was not expected to recover.  Now, 2-3 months later, he is leaving rehab and going home.  Is he 100% healed yet? No, but I truly believe he will get there.  Not every healing God does is instantaneous and also He does not heal everyone that we ask Him to heal.  I am not sure why this is.  When I ask Him He always tells me, “His ways are higher than my ways, and His thoughts higher than my thoughts.”  We aren't meant to understand everything He does in this world.  Aside from physical healing, what I feel the Lord wants me to remind you of today is that he heals us from our sins and our brokenness.  Because of original sin, we had a brokenness about us. We live in a very broken world, and yet we don't have to be broken.  God died for our sins so that we could be healed.  God wants us to live in that light. He wants us to realize our identity in Christ and not continue to live with this idea that we are broken.  Yes, the world is a broken place. There are many broken people, but we don't have to be one of those broken people.  We know Christ, and we can be in a relationship with Him. The verse above is very graphic. “But he was pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes us whole; by his wounds, we were healed.”  He was pierced for our sins. Take a minute and think about that.  Picture the Roman soldiers hammering nails into his hands.  Think about how much that must have hurt.  Then it says He was crushed for our iniquity.  Take a moment to think about the scourging.  Think about how much that must have hurt.  How much He must have wanted to scream out in pain.  I wonder if he wanted to say, “But it wasn't me, I didn't do it?”  He was not being scourged because of anything He did.  He took on our sins and our broken relationship with the Father and died on that cross so we could be free.  What just came to my mind was that there is no way to repay Jesus for what He did for us.  There is no way to repay the debt that He paid for our sins, and He doesn't want us to.  Jesus has forgiven that debt to Him.  He saved us, knowing we would still sin.  He saved us, knowing we would turn away probably 100 times before we got it right.  I don't think this bothers Him as much as it does when we don't accept His forgiveness.  When we don't live in the freedom that He sacrificed to gain for us.  Jesus died so you could be healed.  You, yes, You!  You, who are going through an abusive relationship right now.  You, who are living with or dealing with an addict right now, You who are getting a divorce, You who can't have children, You who are struggling to parent the children you do have.  Jesus died for each one of us, and He wants us to live in that freedom.  He is there to help us through our circumstances.  He is there to lift us up when we need Him too.  All we need to do is to lean into Him.He died to heal us, but we are the ones that need to accept that healing.  It's kinda like if we had an illness and there was a medicine that could cure our illness, and yet we refused to take the medicine.  The medicine is sitting right there on the counter, right next to the water, and yet we refuse to take it because we don't believe it will help.  We believe that our illness is worse than the doctor said it was.  We know that medicine can't possibly help us because our case is too severe.  Does that sound silly to you?  Are you rolling your eyes and wondering why I think I know more than the doctor does?  The same is true for us and our forgiveness of sins.  Jesus died so our sins could be forgiven, so we could be healed physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  Jesus was repairing the relationship with our heavenly Father that original sin had broken.  He died for you.  Yes, he died for all of us, but He also died for each of us individually.  If you were the only person on Earth, He still would have gone through all of that for you.  Jesus knows what we have done.  He knows what we will do.  He did not die on the cross for some of our sins. He died on the cross for all of our sins.  There is nothing you can do that He won't forgive.  There is nothing that has happened to you that He can't heal.When we do something and then don't accept forgiveness for it, we are offending the Lord.  We are telling Him that His sacrifice was not enough.  Is this what you believe?  Do you believe that Jesus dying on the cross was not a big enough sacrifice to cover whatever it was that you did or that was done to you?  It does not make you greedy to accept God's sacrifice.  It does not make you greedy to accept the forgiveness that God offers.  His forgiveness is freely given.  You don't have to do anything to deserve it or to earn it.  It is already yours through your baptism.  He had you and your sins, your troubles in mind when He was on that cross.  Accept the healing.  Accept the forgiveness of sins.One thing that has helped me accept God's Word into my heart is to personalize it to me.  I will put my name in or switch words from “our” to “my”.  Sometimes, we believe scripture is true.  We just don't think it applies to us for some reason or another. Here is how I might read this scripture if I was struggling to believe it was for me personally.  “But he was pierced for my sins, crushed for my iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes me whole; by his wounds, I, Catherine, was healed.”  If you struggle to believe, you are healed.  If you struggle to believe all your sins, yes, even that one can be forgiven.  If you struggle to believe Jesus died for you personally and individually, I ask you to write this scripture down on a sticky note and place it on your computer, your bathroom mirror, your shower, or wherever you will see it daily.  Make it personal and put it in your own name.  Even just changing the “our” to “my” will really change the feel of it.  “But he was pierced for my sins, crushed for my iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes me whole, by his wounds I, Catherine, was healed.” You can add your name, or just take the name out.  Whichever feels best for you.  Jesus loves you, He died for you, don't lessen that sacrifice by refusing to accept the healing that comes from it.  You are healed, all you need to do is live into that healing!Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we love you and we accept your forgiveness.  We accept your healing.  Please help us.  Lord, we ask that you come into our hearts and minds and clear any blocks we might have in accepting your healing and forgiveness.  Lord, we give you permission to work on our hearts please soften them.  We love you Lord, we are so grateful you sent your son to heal us and we are sorry if we haven't been accepting that healing.  Lord we can do nothing without you and yet all things with you.  Please help us.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus! I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow.  Remember Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in July 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “My beloved, I am yours and you are mine. Come away with me so I can speak to your heart. Come away with me into that intimate place where I can speak to your heart alone. Come with me, my beloved. I want to fill you with my joy, my love, and my mercy.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

God's Love Knows No BoundariesThe story of the Magi demonstrates that Jesus came for all people, regardless of their background, beliefs, or status.Avoid Building BarriersLike the Magi, we are reminded not to exclude others from God's love based on their differences but to embrace diversity in our communities and faith.Reflect God's InclusivityAsk yourself: How can I better reflect God's all-encompassing love in my daily interactions with others?Remember Jesus' WordsJesus said, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.” This invites us to consider how we can welcome and honor those outside our usual circles.Live with OpennessBe inspired by the Magi to seek Christ wherever He may be found and to welcome others on their journey of faith.

Remember Jesus is about 30 years old when He begins His earthly ministry (Luke 3:23). Jesus takes three and a half years to prepare the disciples for this great task. In the first year as He begins His ministry in the region of Galilee, He starts gathering the twelve, and they travel with him on His first preaching tour. In His second year, He takes the 12 with Him on His second tour of ministry, again in the region of Galilee. He continues to teach them by His example, to preach, teach to the multitudes, but at the same time to love the individual, and disciple the few. Now here in His third year of ministry, Jesus commissions the Twelve and sends them out by twos, on their own, to practice what they have been learning (Mark 6:7).   I believe that today, Jesus continues this ministry of sending believers. In John 15:16 Jesus said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.” Jesus has called every believer to be a goer and a proclaimer of the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world around us. We can give, we can pray, and we can go. And by the grace of God, we should be doing all of these things all the time! Bringing precious souls into contact with Jesus Christ with the message, “Come and see” (John 1:39).   Jesus commissions and sends the Twelve to preach, and He also tells them while they are doing that, to heal the sick. They were given the gift and miraculous ability to physically heal people which would be evidence and give proof to the authenticity of their message. Today we have the complete Bible and do not need the miraculous signs the Holy Spirit gave the early believer in the church as they laid the foundation of the church. We might not have these gifts today, but we can still pray for the Lord to heal sick people and perform miracles as we minister to hurting people. We can be God's instrument to heal broken hearts as we share Jesus with them through God's Word.   Most of all, we pray for the healing of their soul, that they can experience by repenting and putting their faith and trust in the death and resurrection of Jesus on the cross and find forgiveness for their sins! We can be there for them when they are going through, sickness, pain, death, sorrow, tragedy and disaster in their lives. Praying for God's grace to be there for them during these times, and for the Holy Spirit to be their comfort.   In verse 3, Jesus instructed the Twelve, to "Take nothing for the journey, neither staffs nor bag nor bread nor money; and do not have two tunics apiece.” Jesus is basically teaching and tell them not to depend on things they already have or for people to provide for them as they go forth to minister. A “bag” in those days would have been a beggar's bag that would be used to collect money. Jesus wanted His disciples to learn to depend solely upon their Heavenly Father to provide for their every need (Matthew 6:25-34).   This doesn't mean today that we can't have money or nice things. Paul instructed Timothy about this in 1 Timothy 6:17-19: “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.” It's ok to have “things”, as long as the “things” do not have us. And we use our “things” to do good for eternal purposes! We cannot make it in life or in our ministry without Jesus. He Himself said, “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).   I trust today, and this year, that you are praying, giving, going, and serving Jesus, and will be depending totally upon Him!   God bless!

An expository sermon from Luke 22:14-20 on the Lord's Supper.

2 Timothy 2:1-13 - - Jun 23, 2013

As recipients of God's saving mercy, remembering is both a privilege and a responsibility for Christians. Today, Sinclair Ferguson explains how remembrance is related to keeping Christ central in our thoughts and in our lives. Read the transcript: https://ligonier.org/podcasts/things-unseen-with-sinclair-ferguson/remember-jesus-christ/ A donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Donate: https://donate.ligonier.org/ Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts

35 Then they went out to see what had happened, and came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid.   Luke 8:26-39 reminds us that everything changes when Jesus shows up! I hope you noticed something else that is very special about Jesus in this passage. Remember Jesus and His disciples were ministering in the region of Galilee to great multitudes. Great and marvelous things were taking place. The Gospel of the Kingdom was being proclaimed in all the cities and villages of that region. Demons were being cast out. Great numbers of people were being healed and delivered from their bondage.   Why would you leave this place, and ministry of such great success and go somewhere else? But apparently Jesus, always doing the will of His Father, thought it was necessary! There were two demon possessed men on the other side that needed deliverance. First, I see the love of the Father and the compassion of Jesus in caring enough about those “on the other side”, to go into a stormy sea to reach out and bring hope and salvation to the people in a remote desolate place!   As far as we can tell, according to the three accounts of this story in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus only ministered to two men in a very brief period of time, and almost immediately afterwards left to go back over the sea to Capernaum. Wow! Jesus took the time out of His busy schedule to go help and deliver two people from their bondage. To me this proves that Jesus cares about everyone, no matter who they are and where they are!   We should also learn from this that the success of our present ministry is not what brings the most glory to God, but what does please and glorify Him the most, is that we are in such an intimate relationship with our heavenly Father that we are willing to obey Him and go anywhere and to anyone that He sends us to! We are willing and obedient to step out of our comfort zone, and face the demonic storms of temptation, tribulation, and persecution to help that one person!   If we are not careful, we are so impressed and awed by the success of the mega-churches and ministries, that we forget what really pleases the Father! Large crowds never impressed Jesus! Our success with God does not depend on the results or extent of our ministry, but on our obedience to Jesus every day in the little things! Read John 15 carefully and you will find our main task is simply “to abide in Christ” then the fruit that is produced through this union and communion with Him and our heavenly Father will glory Him (John 15:7-8).   After Jesus commanded the “unclean spirit” to come out of the man, He permitted the demons to enter a herd of swine. This agitated them so much that they chose to drown in the sea rather than to have demons in them. When the keepers of the swine told the town people what had happened, they ran out to see for themselves and “found the man out of who the demon had departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind!”   What a powerful testimony! He was sitting and resting in Jesus. He found what he had been looking for all his life. No more cutting himself, terrorizing the community, living in tombs, wandering in the wilderness! He was clothed, and finally, he was in his right mind! That is what happens when Jesus comes into our lives! We are a new creation in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17).   Today, I believe that there is “someone” waiting in the darkness for you to bring Jesus to them! I can assure you, there is no greater experience in all the world than to be used by God in saving and rescuing a lost soul!

In this exhortation, Pastor Jonathan Parnell expounds upon the second name of Jesus foretold in Isaiah 9:6. Jesus Christ is the Mighty God. Let's not forget all that we know about our Mighty God.

We'll be finishing up the gospel of Matthew today on Monday, with an eye on chapter 28 verses 11-20. Remember Jesus has just been crucified, and buried in a tomb. But as we'll hear today, that tomb is now empty! What happened to the body? No doubt a question in the minds of many in that day, and even still today! Jesus would leave no doubt in anyone's mind, as He would appear to hundreds of people post resurrection! Proving He is very much alive. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/621/29

Let's Not Sleepwalk Through Life1 Thessalonians 5:4-8 "But friends, you're not in the dark, so how could you be taken off guard by any of this? You're sons of Light, daughters of Day. We live under wide open skies and know where we stand. So let's not sleepwalk through life like those others. Let's keep our eyes open and be smart. People sleep at night and get drunk at night. But not us! Since we're creatures of Day, let's act like it. Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed up in faith, love, and the hope of salvation.”Just before these verses, St. Paul was talking about how no one knows when Jesus will come again. The time is not for us to know. However, he is saying that we are not in the dark because we know that He is coming, so how can we be taken off guard by any of this? We know the Lord will come again to judge the living and the dead. We say this each week in the Nicene Creed. This should not be a surprise to us. What Paul is saying in this first part of the verse is that we are at an advantage. There are people who do not believe; they do not go to church, and they do not follow God and all His ways. We are not those people. Even though we don't know exactly when the Lord will return, we believe He will return at some point. This means we can always be ready for His return.The when He is returning is not as important as the fact that He is returning. We know this to be true, and so we can be prepared. We can make sure whenever that day comes, we are ready to go. The verse goes on to say that we are sons of light and daughters of day. We live under wide, open skies and know where we stand. I am such a big fan of the light. I love thinking of God as the light. I like thinking about how we are children of light. We walk in light and not in darkness.I know some of you feel like you are walking in darkness right now. You feel like you can't see the light. If this is you, I want you to remember that you are a child of the light. The enemy can try and hide the light from you. He can try to cast shadows, so you think you are living in the darkness. However, He can't take all the light away because the light lives inside of you. You have the Spirit of God living inside of you, and that is all the light that you need. When you feel like you are surrounded by so much darkness, call on the Holy Spirit to light your way.I love the next line in these verses, “So let's not sleepwalk through life like those others. Let's keep our eyes open and be smart.” This is such great advice. How many of us have been sleepwalking through life? I am part of Big Life mentoring with Pamela Crim, and this is a big reason many people join this group. They feel they are sleepwalking through life. We are meant to live life to the fullest. It says in John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” God does not want us to waste this life that we have. He doesn't want us to go about our days in a fog. If we are not careful, we can just fall into a routine and go through life on autopilot.Did you know that 40-45% of your decisions are automatic based on your habits? That is almost half of all our decisions. That is a lot. What if we don't have good habits? Does that mean we are not making good decisions? Frequently, yes. For instance, I used to be in the habit of eating pretty healthy. That meant when my husband took out the package of Oreos, I didn't instinctively reach over and grab one. I knew that was not going to be good for me, so I didn't take any. However, right now, I am not in the habit of eating healthy, and so when he takes out the Oreos, I grab one, ok, more than one.St. Paul is warning us about doing this in our spiritual life. We need to be intentional in all of life, but especially in our spiritual life. It can be too easy to put things off and think we will just take care of them later. You know you need to spend time with the Lord, but he will always be there, and this movie you want to go see won't be. You know you need to go to confession, but you could go to confession anytime, but your friends want to meet for lunch today. We know we need to love our neighbor, but that is hard, so we figure we love the next neighbor that comes along. Do you see how easy it is to “sleepwalk” through life, as St. Paul says?We know God is coming. We need to be ready because He could come at any moment. The only thing the Bible assures us of in regard to His coming is that no one will know when He is coming and that we will be surprised and taken off guard. The verse says to let us keep our eyes open and be smart. This is great advice. Let's not sleepwalk through life. Let's live our lives intentionally with passion and purpose for the things we care about. The things we know are important.The verses end with, “People sleep at night and get drunk at night. But not us! Since we're creatures of Day, let's act like it. Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed up in faith, love, and the hope of salvation.” I love this last line of the verse. Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed up in faith, love, and the hope of salvation. Imagine how different this would be if all of God's faithful from all denominations walked around dressed in faith, love, and the hope of salvation. Imagine if you didn't have to be afraid of offending someone when you mentioned the Lord because you knew just by looking at someone if they knew God or not.Sometimes, when I hear people talk about their faith in God, they are not filled with faith, love, or hope. They are filled with hate, anger, disbelief, and dread. There are also so many people who are living in hopelessness and despair right now. I know people who know God; they have a personal and intimate relationship with Him, and yet they feel very much in despair and even hopeless at times. Hopeless that things are going to get better for them. But what about the rest of us? What about you? Could you be dressed with faith, hope, and love as you go out into this world? Could I be dressed with faith, hope, and love as I go into this world?I remember I was listening to Father Mike Schmitz one time, and he was talking about how we act in the world. He said he had heard a question one time, and it stuck with him. It has stuck with me, too. If being Christian were illegal. If it were against the law to be Christian, and you were accused of being Christian and you were on trial, would they have enough evidence to convict you? In other words, can people tell, just by looking at you and talking with you, that you are Christian? We live in a world where we are afraid to offend anyone or get in trouble, as it is not popular to talk about God these days. However, who should we be more afraid of offending, God or those around us?Jesus is coming back one day to judge the living and the dead. What if that day were today? Would you be ready? He is not going to wait for us to be ready. This verse in the Bible was written about 2,000 years ago, give or take. If we can't be ready with 2,000 years of lead time, we will never be ready. Stop procrastinating. Stop saying you will spend time with the Lord tomorrow. Do it today! Even if it is just 2 minutes to say, “Hey God, it's me. I just wanted to say hi and see how you are doing.” Or you can even say something like, “Hey God, I have no idea what I am doing, but I know, or I think I want more of you in my life. Please show me how.” It doesn't matter what you say as much as it does that you say something. Don't put it off. We are children of the light. We have the advantage of knowing Jesus is coming back. Do something with that knowledge; don't just waste it!Dear Heavenly Father, please bless all of those listening to this episode. Lord, we want to prepare for your coming, please help us. Please show us one thing we can do this Advent season to help us not only get ready for your coming as a baby on Christmas day but also as you're coming again at the end of time. Help us to live in a way that people know we are Christians just by knowing us. I want others to know just by looking at me or spending time with me that I am completely, madly, and deeply in love with you! Please help me, Lord. I ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus's holy name. Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again on Monday. Remember, it is free to join mentoring this month. We will focus on Mary this month. I hope you will join us on Tuesday nights at 8 P. M. EST. Remember Jesus loves you, just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in June 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “My precious ones know that I walk with you. That I am not even a breath away. I am part of you.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning? O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent. But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in You; They trusted, and You delivered them. They cried to You, and were delivered; They trusted in You, and were not ashamed.   There is no chapter in the whole Bible that gives us a picture of the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross like Psalm 22.  I don't think we can ever in our finite minds fully comprehend and understand the suffering that Christ endured while on the Cross.  This chapter helps us to get a glimpse of the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual agony of Christ during the six hours that He hung on the cross.  And this chapter was written by King David one-thousand years before Christ was even born.   David is the author, but we have a difficult time finding an occasion in his life that would call forth this kind of psalm. According to the record, the Lord never deserted him in his hour of need but always provided friends to help him and deliverance from his enemies. The intense suffering described here isn't that of a sick man in bed or a soldier in battle. It's the description of a criminal being executed!   Numerous quotations from the psalm in the four Gospels, as well as Hebrews 2:10-12, indicate that this is a Messianic psalm. We may not know how this psalm related to the author's personal experience, but we do know that David was a prophet (Acts 2:30), and in this psalm he wrote about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The first part (vv. 1-21) focuses on prayer and suffering and takes us to the cross, while the second part (vv. 22-31) announces the resurrection and expresses praise to the glory of God.   An understanding of Messiah's suffering and glory is basic to grasping the message of the Bible (Luke 24:25-27; 1 Peter 1:11). The opening words of the psalm immediately transport us to Calvary, for Jesus quoted them at the close of a three-hour period of darkness (vv. 1-2; Matt. 27:45-46; Mark 15:34). "I am not alone," Jesus had told His disciples, "because the Father is with me" (John 16:32), and yet He cried out that the Lord had forsaken Him. When He spoke these words, He had been engaged in a mysterious transaction with the Father, dying for the sins of the world (1 John 2:2; 4:14).   On the cross, Jesus was "made sin for us who knew no sin" (2 Cor. 5:21) and made "a curse" (Gal. 3:13) for us. In some inexplicable way He experienced what condemned lost sinners experience "away from the presence of the Lord" (2 Thess. 1:9; Matthew 25:41). I personally believe, that in a way that only God really knows, Jesus suffered an eternity in hell, separated from God during those last three hours of darkness from noon to 3pm on the Cross.   This cry to “My God” was both in the “daytime and in the night season”.  Remember Jesus was crucified around 9am in the morning when the sun was brightly shining.  Then at noon, the Gospel of Matthew records: “Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:45-46).   My friend, have you ever trusted Jesus to be your Lord and Savior? If not, why not right now take the time to invite Him into your heart and life!   God bless!

Keep Your Eyes Fixed On JesusMatthew 14:26-31 “When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified. “It is a ghost,” they said, and they cried out in fear.  At once, [Jesus] spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.” Peter said to him in reply, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”  He said, “Come.” Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw how [strong] the wind was, he became frightened, and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately, Jesus stretched out his hand caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”I love this story. I remember the first time I remember someone talking about it was a speaker at a retreat in England. The theme of the retreat was Radical Trust. I loved that theme from the moment that I heard it. I instantly knew that was what I wanted. I wanted to have radical trust in the Lord. The speaker was talking about how she loved Peter because he was always ready to follow the Lord. It seemed as though he didn't always think before he did things, but that was part of what made him so special.Just before the disciples were on this boat, they had just been with Jesus as he spoke to a large group of people, and they got to be a part of the miracle of feeding the 5,000 men with five loaves of bread and two fish. They just not only witnessed a miracle but got to be a part of it. Afterward, Jesus told them to get in the boat and go ahead to the other side while he dismissed the people. Once the crowds of people had left, Jesus climbed the mountain to be alone to pray with his Father. He stayed there late into the night. Once he was done, He decided to catch up with His disciples on the water. However, it was the middle of the night and all they saw was someone walking towards them on the water. They didn't know who it was and they were afraid.I think we all would have reacted this way if we saw someone walking on the water towards us. However, when they called out to Him, He answered them and told them they had nothing to be afraid of, that it was Jesus. Then I love what Peter did next. He told the Lord if it is really you, command me to come out on the water with you. Jesus said, Come. What happens next is remarkable. Jesus invites Peter out onto the water and Peter gets out of the boat onto the water. I wonder how many of us would have the courage to ask the Lord to invite us to join Him, and then when He did, how many of us would actually be brave enough to get out of the boat.I have asked the Lord for many things. I have asked Him to use me for healing, and then I have absolutely had times when He said ok, and yet I was too afraid to do what He called me to do. Has this ever happened to you? You asked the Lord for something, and then when he said yes, you were surprised, and also you were afraid? I love that Peter just stepped out of the boat, and He was walking on the water with the Lord, at least for a bit. That is amazing. Imagine the opportunity Peter would have missed out on if he hadn't asked or if he hadn't gotten out of the boat. I wonder if all the other apostles were sad they hadn't asked the Lord to call them out of the boat?The next part is a part I think we can all relate to. Peter got out of the boat. He was walking on water to the Lord, and all was great, and then he took his eyes off of Jesus and looked at the world around him. Instead of keeping his eyes fixed on Jesus, he looked around and saw how [strong] the wind was, he became frightened and began to sink. I think we have all been here before, too. We had our eyes fixed on Jesus, we knew we were doing what He called us to do, all was going great, and then we started to look around us. We noticed others talking about us, we noticed the circumstances around us were different, we got enticed by our surroundings, and we stopped doing what we knew we should do.God is not always calling us to do something that is easy. He is not always calling us to do something that will feel good, or that will please others. Remember, Paul was thrown into prison while he was doing the work God called him to do. He was not in prison for disobeying the Lord, he was following the Lord's direction and was imprisoned for it. You may know that you are doing the right thing, and yet if you take your eyes off Jesus and look around you, it may seem like the circumstances around you are overwhelming. If you start to listen to those around you, you may start to sink, just as Peter did.I think it is important for us all to remember what happened to Peter so that if we are in a similar circumstance, we will know what to do. When Peter took his eyes off Jesus, and he started to sink, he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord saved Him. It says in the verse above, “He cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately, Jesus stretched out his hand, caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” It does not say that Jesus took His time to walk over to Peter and to help him out. It says that Jesus immediately stretched out His hand and caught him. Jesus will do the same for you.We should try our best to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. When we do, we will not stray from the path God has laid out for us. We will not feel stressed out or overwhelmed because we will know that God is there to lead us and help us. However, when we do take our eyes off Jesus, which we will because we are human and we make mistakes, it is important to know that all we need to do is call out to the Lord, and He will be right there, stretching out his hand to us. God will always be there for us! That we can count on.Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless each one of you listening to this episode today. Lord, you are amazing, and we are so grateful you are calling us all to something amazing. We are sorry when we pull back or are too scared to step into that calling. We are sorry when we step into it and then fall down because we take our eyes off of you. Please help us to keep our eyes fixed on you. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus's holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I have decided that for the month of December, mentoring will be free for anyone who would like to give it a try and see what it is all about. I know this is a busy month for everyone but if you have time on Tuesday night at 8 EST I invite you to join us for mentoring. If you would like the zoom link please email me at Catherine@findingtruenorthcoaching.com. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember Jesus loves you, just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in May 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “I surround you with my love, I surround you with my joy, I surround you with my hope, I surround you with everything that's good, and you in turn need to do the same with others. I surround you, I fortify you, I give you everything so that you can go out and proclaim my name to those you meet.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

What does it mean to behold Christ? Together, we are studying the New Testament, one chapter at a time, and answering this very question. Join us as we dive deep into details of the New Testament and behold Jesus as the centerpiece of God's sovereign plan of redemption. Today, we are journeying through 2 Timothy 2. You can follow along with us in Behold | A Study of the New Testament vol. 2  Visit The Daily Grace Co. for the Behold bundle and for beautiful products that will equip you on your journey to knowing and loving God more. Find a free digital copy of the Behold reading plan here. Follow @dailygracepodcast on Instagram for exclusive podcast content and @thedailygraceco for all things The Daily Grace Co. Subscribe to the Daily Grace Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and Read the Bible in a year with us in the Bible App. Click here for a transcript of this episode