Dear Loved One,

 

I know you’re hurting right now. You’re feeling unloved and unworthy. You feel hopelessness and despair. You don’t know what to believe in anymore. You had so much hope for a bright exciting future, and suddenly its gone! You’re in that awful place of expectations being destroyed. You’re feeling despair.

But the Bible tells me as your brother or sister in Christ, I’m supposed to encourage you with the TRUTH of these times. (1 Thessalonians 5)

Because YOU KNOW the truth. You are one of the blessed children of God, that has accepted Jesus, that believes in Jesus, and knows how God’s plan for us all is going to end! What a gift that is! You KNOW we are living in end times! You are going to be raptured up to Jesus before all the really bad stuff happens! You already have a place and a position Jesus has prepared for you! And according to Bible prophecy, this is all going to happen very soon!

These truly are such exciting times we’re living in! Satan DOES NOT want us to take ANY pleasure in this fact so he BOMBARDS us with anything he can to take our peace away. He’s done that in your life right now. But friend, REGARDLESS of what struggles you’re having in any relationship right now, that doesn’t change your relationship with Jesus! THAT’s what you must think on! Experiencing the presence of God….. That’s what you need right now! And that’s what GOD wants you to have and to experience!

This past year I’ve done a lot of searching through the scriptures, trying to find out what was the ‘secret’ to those disciples’ endurance. After everything that happened at River Hills Fellowship, I was in such a bad place. Maybe a little like how you’re feeling now. I had so many hopes, plans and dreams….. I envisioned a bright future in a church where I felt loved and had purpose. I had expectations that I would get to do the thing(s) I loved doing (encouraging in the Lord, sharing the Word, singing songs, etc.)

And for the past year now, I have been waiting on the Lord. The first few months were much like what you’re feeling now. But then, as I continued to study the Bible, I saw that many of the people God called had bad things happen to them. You can start at the beginning of the Bible and go all the way through, and find they all had ‘stuff’.

For example, Jacob worked for 7 years in the fields for Laban, EXPECTING his marriage to Rachel. But he was deceived and instead got Leah. (Genesis 29:20-25). Imagine how he felt! We all know the horrible stuff that happened to Job. And the Bible tells us Paul experienced all sorts of physical, emotional and spiritual trials….. Which he considered nothing compared to what was coming! There’s so many great examples in the Bible, …. I just don’t have the time or the room to list them all!

What I found, was that all these people had ‘found’ God. They had experienced a personal touch from Him. Even when their situations didn’t immediately change, they found they could hang on because they had experienced God. For example: Hagar. Do you remember her? She was Sarah’s maid whom Sarah had given to Abraham to bear a child. But then, Sarah ran Hagar off! But God appeared to Hagar out in the wilderness! He basically told Hagar that her son Ishmael would be hated by all. Now what mother wants to hear that?!!?? Yet Hagar praised God….. Not because of what He had told her about Ishmael. But because she had experienced the presence of God. She would NEVER forget that day. She even said to God, “You are a God that sees!“ And He sees YOU too!

I have found that experiencing God’s presence is the answer in these times. (By the way, Hagar’s story is found in Genesis 16.)

I still don’t have a church. I want to be ‘doing something’ for God, yet no doors seem to be opening! But I have this amazing peace, and these last few months I have felt the love of God for me in ways I never have before! Nothing compares with that!

I’ve been doing a lot of studying and researching and praying about these times we live in. WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO? The thing that comes through over and over again, is we’re supposed to just be ready, watching, and doing the job Jesus assigned for us to do. What IS that job? I don’t know what it is for you, my friend, but God does not speak in riddles. I know He will help you understand what it is He wants you to do in these last days. Maybe you are called to just WAIT, to love whomever God has placed in your life…. Love them in their imperfectness, …. I don’t know. But God does.

One of the things we are specifically told by Jesus is this: “Be on guard so that your hearts will not be weighed down with dissipation (indulgence) and drunkenness and the WORRIES OF THIS LIFE…..” (Luke 21:34). Like I mentioned earlier, I notice that over and over, we are told to ‘be on guard’. I think Jesus knew that Satan would be attacking our minds and emotions so ferociously these end days. You are weighed down right now with depression and hopelessness, because you had set your mind and heart on expectations that aren’t coming true. But I think Jesus wants you to instead, set your expectations on the things YOU KNOW ARE COMING TRUE. And that is His soon return and the glorious life you will experience with Him!

My friend, wherever you are and whatever you are going through, I pray that God will reveal Himself to you today in a very special way. Don’t run from him….. Run into His arms! He loves you so much!

I am attaching one of my songs. It’s called “Peace, be still.” I want you to imagine Jesus speaking those words to you. He doesn’t always give explanations, in fact most times He DOESN’T explain our pain. He just expects us to trust Him. And He just says, “Peace, __________…. Be still. Trust me.”

Is is really true?

I just read a statistic that only 30% of Christians believe the Bible.  I don’t know if that’s true.  To be honest, I don’t know WHAT to believe anymore. 

Well, except for 1 thing.  The Bible.  THAT I CAN BELIEVE.

Why would anyone throw out the ONE thing that’s believable in our world today, the ONE thing that’s trustworthy, the ONLY thing that can be counted as truth?

Celebrate!

“We need to talk”

Sin

My daughter said something profound.   She said she believed that the key for victory in this Christian walk is for people to humbly recongize their sin; that it’s one thing to believe in Jesus but we need to be broken in our sin.  

You might be thinking….. ‘aaah……duh, Sue…… like, every Christian knows THAT.’  But I wonder.  When I look at the Church in America.  When I look at so many so called professing Christians. 

I was recently witnessing to a person who had many questions about Jesus, the Bible, the way of salvation, etc.  I’m not smart enough to answer the tough questions, like proving the validity of the Bible.  How I wanted that person to believe me and to accept the truth that Jesus is the only way to God.   But I was unable to make him see it. 

But then I realized …. I don’t have that kind of power.  Only God does.  Jesus told us clearly that He would send His Holy Spirit… and its the Spirit that convicts of sin.  John 16:8 – “When He (the Spirit) comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgement, because the ruler of this world has been judged.”

The first thing Jesus said upon beginning his ministry was ‘repent!’  (Matthew 4:17).  The thing Peter told the 3000 converted on the day of Pentecost that they must do?:   ‘repent’. (Acts 2:38)

My daughter had said that unless we have a sense of our sin……

and it’s like a light bulb came on!  That’s what is such a common denominater in our world today.  Most people – even many Christians – don’t have a real sense of how horrible sin is.  How it is such a problem for the human race.  We are so narcisstic.  We really are.  Our whole culture has accepted the premise that life is all about us.  We just think God should be waiting at our doorstep every time we snap our fingers.  We act like we are God and He is here to serve us! 

Oh I believe God IS waiting at our doorstep.  I believe he is knocking.  But until we come to Him with humble hearts and an understanding of what and who we are, …… well, to me, it would seem like blashemy or something.  I mean God is God, and mighty and powerful and just …. and He can be nothing different.  It would be impossible for Him to change Himself to be a God who bows down to OUR needs and temper tantrums.

Lately I’ve been playing and singing the song ‘Majesty’ on my guitar.  It has really touched me.  I wanted to post a youtube video of the song.  There are several I could use, but this one haunts me.  I must warn you…. it is very hard to watch.  I couldn’t even get through it.  I weep everytime I consider what Jesus did for me. 

But as horrific as the passion is….. the suffering Jesus took on…… this suffering is nothing compared to the SIN of mankind that Jesus took.  Jesus took on the WRATH of God.  The JUST wrath of God.  The just punishment that should have been mine and yours and all of mankinds.  I don’t think we can understand how horrible that was for Jesus.  We ‘see’ the horrible passion of Christ…. and yes, that was bad.  But yet the martyrs of the first three centuries went to their death singing hymns. Many were crucified as Jesus was, as well as burned at the stake, decaptiated, tortured, etc.   Yet we see Jesus cowering in the Garden, in so much anguish, He’s sweating blood!  Was He afraid?  No, Jesus was not concerned about the physical pain.  It was the cup that He dreaded.  What was in the cup? Psalm 75:8, Jeremiah 25:15-16. The cup was full of the wrath of Almighty God.

Jesus took that cup.  Oh how grateful and humbled I am that He took it. 

I cry out that God would open the eyes of our world today, to understand the great price Jesus paid when He took that cup.  I pray that people would see what sin really is, and how horrible it is, and how we ARE sin until Jesus takes it from us.  Holy Spirit, please move in our world today! 

Jesus came…… what next?