Ok, so, I am driving down the road to bring my daughter to dinner for her birthday and see this billboard sign and it catches my attention. Understand that most signs don’t because they are terrible, but this one is a white sign and on one side says LUST and the other side says LOVE in red letters with the words “I am second” in white on a black patch in the center with the website www.iamsecond.com in the corner. I struck me because I really didn’t know what it was about and yet it was drawing me. I did not know then, but I know now that it was my spirit was that was drawing me to this sign.

It is a day later and I am at my computer and I remember this sign and go to the website. It is also plain, but it has a person on the right and a statement “I am second,” that you can click which takes you to a video of them speaking. Well, I was not prepared to hear the amazing testimonies of how God has changed these peoples lives and then to have them declare that they are second or say at the end “I am second” to God. I sat there and listened to several of them. The one I liked the most is the one from Stephen Baldwin where his cleaning lady told his wife she was not there to just clean the house but because they would become Christians and have a ministry. This is an amazing website. You have to check it out.

And it got me to thinking about how I am second. God is in control of my life and Jesus is Lord of my life and I am happily second to them. I can remember a time before them when I was living for me and how lust and pornography got me into trouble with the law on multiple occasions and was leading me down a very bad path. But God got a hold of me and shook me up because he has a plan and a ministry for me down the road. He has had many people like that maid tell me that God has things in store and for a while like Stephen I ran. But I am not running away from God anymore. On July 12, 1992, in a little church in upstate New York I made Jesus lord of my life. And then several years later, while having Jesus as lord, but still trying to be the one in control, I gave everything over to him and told him that I made a mess of things and that if he could do anything with this life it was his. Since then, he has moved me to Texas and given me a great job. He continues to inspire me in writing and also is developing some interesting contacts. I know that God has great things in store and I am excited. But the coolest thing is that I don’t have to worry about one thing. I just get to enjoy the ride because God is in control and “I am second.”

The enemy formed another weapons against us and tried to come between my brother and me, but God is good and amazing and awesome and caused this weapon not to prosper as he promised he would. You can read all about it on the Daniel Fast Blog site called “A Call To Fast” where I posted the Testimony by clicking here. Our God truly is an awesome God!!

On Monday December 8th, my wife was waiting in the parking lot outside my office when she noticed that the temperature gauge for the engine was almost in the red zone. This was not good so she immediately turned the car off while she waited for me. When I got in the car, she told me what happened. As I started the car, the temperature shot up to well over half. Since we were at my work and had to get home and I have had a thermostat go in a car before, I decided to drive the car home and watch the engine temperature. By the grace of God, we arrived home without issue.

The next morning, we arranged with my brother to have my sister-in-law bring me to work after she got off from working overnight. On the other hand, my wife proceeded to take our car to a mechanic who checked the car out. We had prayed and hoped that the car would cost us somewhere in the neighborhood of about a hundred dollars as we had just put two hundred dollars in the car to get it to pass inspection. We would later discover that the estimate was about $1,300, which was well above the amount of money that we had available to us.

I was at work when Vicky called me with the news. She was in tears and to be honest I was at a loss for words coupled with the fact that I was in the middle of my office and unable to console her anyway. For a moment in time, I was having d?j? vu and I didn’t know what to do.

Allow me to explain. Almost exactly a year ago to the day, we had a Kia Optima that died in the middle of the road when my wife was returning home. She had James in the car when it died. She called me at work, but as it would happen at that moment in time there was no one would around who could bring me to her. She then called the church we were attending at the time and their basic attitude was good luck with that which was not helping our situation or the fact that Vicky was stranded in the middle of the road with a just about to turn five year old who did not understand why he had to stay in the car. Eventually a police office came by and helped to push the car off the road to a side street and then a tow truck came and towed the car to a dealer to get it looked at. Vicky was stuck having to walk home on a major road with James and lugging the car seat.

The car dealer discovered that the timing belt had snapped and took out a good portion of the engine with it and the repairs came to $3,000. Given what happened with the church and everything else, I honestly didn’t have the faith to turn to God for the answers. I didn’t rely on him or wait on him for what I was supposed to do and made a very bad decision on how to pay for the car. A decision that still haunts me today.

We received the car back and less than a month later; it was totaled in a car accident as my wife was driving home from picking up Katie, my oldest daughter. You could literally see the hands of God wrapped around the drivers and passengers seat as the car that hit them hit the front and destroyed the engine and then spun around and hit the rear section totally missing where they were sitting. The down side was that the man did not have insurance and when we went to file the claim, we discovered that we missed with all my medical issues that our insurance had been canceled.

God provided us a vehicle, the one that was now in the shop and estimated to be $1,300 in repairs and my mind was racing back to last year and what to do. I was saying a silent prayer to God that I couldn’t go back to that because I knew that was wrong, but that he HAD to come through somehow and some way.

Vicky called the church and Gayle, our wonderful church secretary, sent out and email for people to pray at the same time I was sending out an email to everyone I had emails for calling on them to pray for our needs. Gayle prayed with Vicky and helped to encourage her that God would come through somehow.

Mark and Dina are friends of ours from church whom God has begun to knit together. Last Saturday night, we had the opportunity to get to know them when we were invited to their Christmas party at which we had a great time. Dina replied to my email within fifteen minutes with the simple message to have Vicky call. The reason she wanted us to call was because they had a mechanic that they knew and trusted. The long story short is that we transferred the car from the one mechanic to the mechanic that they knew. He gave us a new quote. This quote was about $25 less, but included a bunch more work that needed to be done. This was both great and depressing news at the same time.

Maria and Mario are friends of ours from church who we have knit together with because we share many of the same difficulties as well as both of us having been selected by the Pastor to be Connection Group leaders. About thirty minutes after I sent out the email, I received an email from Maria for our phone number so that she could call and pray with Vicky. However, I was in a meeting and not able to get back to her right away. Since I was taking too long, she called the church and got our number and contacted Vicky and stood with her in prayer as well as encouraged her.

To add to this, a member from our church contacted us and told us that they could help us with the bill by loaning us $600 to be paid back as we were able. This was a tremendous blessing because it immediately showed me that God was moving and that God was taking care of this whole thing, which I should have known from the beginning because that is the kind of God he is and always has been. But you know, sometimes when you fall off of a horse, it is hard to get back on no matter how good the horse is. I just thank God that he is patient with us.

This is where God really gets awesome. I was at my desk at work rubbing my head because my blood pressure was up and my head was hurting and a man comes up to me that I have been working with for the last almost five years and asks how am I doing. I told him that I was not so good. He asked what was up. I told him that the car was busted and that I had hoped that it was be inexpensive, but that it was going to be a lot of money and then he did the most unexpected thing. He moved in real close and said, “Do you need some money?” I was shocked and was not sure what to say other then I didn’t know when I could pay him back and he told me not to worry about that. Now, this happened less than an hour after finding out that the estimate of the car was going to cost as much as it did. In the end, when I found out the actual price of the car the next day, I needed to borrow $600, and I went and asked for the money. This man, who is a sweet and wonderful man asked if that would be enough and then offered me a $1,000 to make sure that I had enough to get by to be paid back when I can.

So, let me break down what God did for us. I found out that the car was going to cost well more then I had and could even think about coming up with. My best hope was my next paycheck, which was ten days away and spoken for to pay rent and Christmas. When I found this out, I prayed and God did the following IN LESS THAN AN HOUR. Gayle encouraged my wife and sent an email having the church pray for our needs. Mark and Dina called with a much better mechanic that did much more that was needed for a total of $1,189. Maria called Vicky, my wife, and encouraged and prayed for her. A member of my church called and loaned us $600 towards the repairs. A man from my offered to loan me money towards the repairs. He turned out loaning us a $1,000. All of this because I trusted in God to supply my needs and He showed up through these people. I don’t know what your need is right now, but I can tell you without a doubt that if you put it in God’s hands, he will take care of it for you just like he did for me and continues to do for me.

WOW! This story is amazing.

Our Hero is Coming Home

After nearly 14 years of equine rescue, I thought that I had seen it all, sadly . . .

I WAS WRONG.

After nearly 14 years of equine rescue, I thought that I had seen it all, sadly . . . I WAS WRONG.

On October 18th, Troy and I were contacted by those in charge of recovering a small horse that was found by hunters wandering in the high wilderness of the Cascade Mountain range. Evident by his halter and dragging lead rope, the bay Arab gelding was clearly not wild. Instead, while he was being transported to Bend Equine Medical Center for emergency treatment, he was kind and gentle, quietly submitting to those who were trying to care for him. Based on what little information that could be gathered, it was estimated that he had been wandering for several weeks. Even for a small horse, he looked to be about 200 lbs. underweight and was INCREDIBLY dehydrated. Once at the hospital, it was confirmed . . . his wounds were severe.

A leg wound on the back of his left front cannon was so festered with rampant infection that its rotten stench filled the room. A ‘makeshift’ bandage of green vet wrap had grown into the leg and effectively become a tourniquet, further adding to the suffering of this abandoned horse. Once the layers of caked blood, puss and bio-matter were removed, the tendons of his leg were clearly visible.

Even more troubling was the fact that his left eye was completely destroyed and hanging out of its socket. There was also a very suspicious looking depressed wound near his left eye. His head, neck, shoulder and front leg gave further evidence of the severity of his injuries, as they were heavily crusted with his own blood. As bad as his eye injury was, his head injury was much worse.

X-rays revealed the UNTHINKABLE. This gentle, little horse with the kind spirit . . . had been shot in the head. His x-rays clearly showed where someone had shot him three inches behind his left eye. The trajectory of the bullet traveled through the top of his lower jaw, shattering it, and continued to penetrate his skull as it exploded into nearly three dozen-inoperable-fragments of jagged shrapnel. Compounding his plight even further, his blood tests showed that he had lost fully HALF of his blood volume.

It was hard to believe, looking at him for the first time, that he had survived for an undetermined amount of time with a horrifically infected leg wound, a broken jaw, a destroyed eye and lethal blood loss, all with an exploded bullet scattered throughout his head. If this weren’t bad enough, he was also left to wander in a high altitude forest while dragging a lead rope. Any one of these things should have destroyed him. Yet, here he was, standing before me, blinking inquisitively at my presence with his one remaining eye. I was overcome with the thought that . . . it was a complete miracle he was standing at all!

It appeared that someone felt his leg wound was just too much for them to deal with; or perhaps they believed that it was a fatal wound. Somehow, they felt that loading up their friend and driving him to a remote location to be destroyed . . . was their best option. A ‘best guess’ is that they shot him in the head and fell unconscious from the impact. Bleeding profusely from his wound, it was believed that during this time, he bled out half of his blood volume. Thinking he was dead, the perpetrators left the scene. Miraculously, he woke up. Somehow summoning the strength to stand, he lurched to his feet and staggered away.

Even though his wounds are grave, he is not. He is continuing to make meaningful progress in his efforts to heal. And in less than one week, this amazing horse will be coming to Crystal Peaks! Because of the severity of his injuries, his recovery will be long and intensive. But the staff, volunteers and kids who come to the ranch are not only up for the challenge of caring for a critically ill horse . . . they can’t wait until he comes home. Instead of ‘waiting’, they are going to him! Since the moment it was determined that this special horse was going to become a part of our family, more days than not, I have driven my truck to the equine hospital filled with young ‘well wishers’ who are determined to help this wounded soul KNOW that he is greatly loved.

In these past days of spending time with our new boy, I have become very aware of something remarkable about him. He is courageous, he is a survivor, he has fought HARD to live, to keep going. Most horses would have perished when faced with just one of his symptoms. Yet, he survived what many would believe to be unthinkable odds. The more I ponder our gelding, the more I realize just how symbolic he is of a vast majority of people.

At some point in nearly each of our lives, we go through “horrible, unthinkable” times. We feel as if we have been lead out into the wilderness, perhaps by those we loved and trusted, badly beaten and left for dead. We stumble away, wandering within the desolation of loneliness, unable to help ourselves, unable to stop the ‘hemorrhaging’, unable to find our way home. The horizon begins to fade into gray. Death looms.

It is then, within our darkest night, our deepest wilderness, our greatest despair, when our hope is bleeding out . . . if we call on His name . . . He comes. Jesus comes into the wreckage of our heart, our blackest place, our wasteland of hopelessness . . . and He leads us home.

Like a soldier returning from battle, or a little horse from the wilderness, we too can fall into the welcome arms of the One who loves us. We, like the soldier or horse, might not look the same on the outside. When we come home from our ‘battle in the wilderness’, we might be scarred or disfigured, we might carry the marks of our wounding. Yet, as one of the little ones here at the ranch has so honestly and eloquently stated about his wounded four legged friend, “It’s not the outside (of a horse) that makes him lovable . . . it’s the inside that I love. It’s not what the outside looks like that makes him a ‘hero’, it’s the inside, it’s the heart . . . that’s what makes a REAL hero.”

Learning from my own experiences, I now know that it’s true, we can never be too wounded for the Lord to heal. We can never be too lost for Him to find. We can never be too broken for Him to love back to life. We can never fall so deep into despair, that His immeasurable love for us-each of us-is not deeper still. There is no such place of sorrow, no such wilderness of pain . . . that He cannot find us, help us stand up and lead us home. Because this little horse is so symbolic of this beautiful truth, we hope that you will be please to know that we have decided to name him in honor of those who have chosen to reach for the hand of the Lord and walk through their wilderness. His new name shall be . . . ‘Hero.’

Written by Kim Meeder

Abortion is a hot topic and there are many people with many esoteric reasons to support their opinion. However, none of them hold a candle to the story of T. Suzanne Eller. Below is her story from her website that you can see by following this link.

Dear friend. . .

Posted October 27, 2008

You ask me why I dare touch such a hot topic in today?s political scene. After all, it?s a women?s right to choose. It?s private. It?s not right to push your opinions on others, you say. Thank you for your questions, for allowing me to be the one to listen.

I don?t often talk about abortion, but friend you asked the question so is it okay that I share my story?

My mom was 15 when she found out she was pregnant with her first. A young naval guy on her base told her he loved her. She believed him. Nine months later she gave birth to a sick child. Cystic fibrosis. She was far from home now. ?You made your own bed; lie in it,? her mother said.

Her husband wasn?t faithful. He was abusive. She was fragile. She got pregnant again, giving birth to another little girl just in time to say goodbye to her first. When her little one died, her husband beat her, accusing her of not taking care of Pamela. What he didn?t understand is that at time they didn?t have the medical knowledge to extend the life of a CF baby.

He was gone for longer periods of time, some times months due to service. Other times, days, due to other women. She was not quite 20 years old, a mother twice over, without money, a phone, and at the mercy of an angry young man.

She fled one day, finding a place with a girlfriend, taking in jobs cleaning homes. She was as poor as ever, but safe and rebuilding her life.

He found her. He wanted to make their marriage work. He wanted her to come home. He wanted sex.

She said no to all of those. He made her give him at least one of them. It was violent. He left, this time for forever.

She found out she was pregnant. It was the worst of times; it was the worst of times. There was not ?best? in this situation. Her remaining daughter was 3. She was 20. At nine months pregnant she walked out of the house, her water broken, a dime clutched in her hand as she looked for a pay phone to call for help.

She gave birth alone later that night in the hallway of a naval hospital. No pink balloons. No birth announcements. No loving family surrounding her. It was a difficult birth: a 9 lb. 13 oz. baby girl. Daughter #3 arrived.

I was that baby.

When I look at her circumstances she had every reason to terminate the pregnancy. But if she had ended that pregnancy, she would have ended me. And generations after me: Leslie, Ryan, Melissa.

That?s why I quietly oppose abortion. It?s why I am grateful that my mother allowed me to choose whether my life was of value, instead of her circumstances or my conception or the hard life we had after that.

Because I love life. I love being Suzie. I love being a mom. I love traveling around the world to share my faith. I love hiking. I love being in the arms of Richard. I love everything that life brings, even if that meant that I had to go through the hard parts growing up, and there were many, to be here today.

Maybe you disagree and I hear you, but this is my story and I can?t change the facts to embrace the issue.

Thanks for asking the question. I love having this conversation w/you.

God is so awesome. This weekend, we tried a new church and I will just tell you that I hate trying churches. Especially when you try churches that are good ones. Because bad churches are easy to spot for the most part, but good ones that are just not where God wants you to become a part are much harder to tell. So, I hate the process to trying churches and praying and trying to determine if this is the church for my family. If this is the church that God is calling us to make our new home. So, in a way I was dreading going to church this weekend and I hate that feeling as well.

In fact, the night before, I asked God that this be the church just because I hate having to look for a church. I know that is the not the right reason to ask that the church I was about to visit be the church that God wanted to be our home, but I just wanted the search to be over. I am sure that any of you Christians who have had to search for a new church know exactly what I am talking about. So, I asked God to make this church the church that was to be our home church and to confirm that for us. Of course, I did tell god that not my will but his will be done and if this was not the church to let that be known to me as well, but the majority of my hour of prayer time was making my request known to God.

Before I get into what the church service was all about, I had spent much of the week prior contacting my father in the faith, the man who lead me to Jesus who now pastor’s a church in Utah. He was at a conference, but was ever so gracious to find time to converse with me over email which is a real testament the love of God that is in his life because I sent him what amounted to about an eight page email just unloading about everything that had been going on and how I felt and what I was going through and how I need some advise and direction. He replied that night, in the middle of the night burning the midnight oil on my behalf (Lord continue to richly bless him) with some initial thoughts and a question that really got me thinking. The question was simple, “What is the main goal of a Christian?” I quickly fired off an email reply with some trite clich? response.

However, the question did not leave my mind. I spent the better part of the day thinking about the question over and over and about Jesus and God and the Scriptures. I knew that I knew an answer and to be honest I really didn’t want to get this wrong. That is not that I was too proud to admit that I could be or was wrong, just that I really didn’t want to get such a basic concept of Christianity incorrect. So, the question just kept going around and around in my head until I had come to what I believed was the answer and just had to fire off my response to my father in the faith. Here was my reply.

I believed that I was right, but I can not tell you how good it felt to have my father in the faith confirm it for me. With all that I had been through lately, there was a great sense of peace to know that at the core of everything I had not strayed from God or the truth. My father in the faith added that now I had to find a church that believed this and lived.

This brings me back to this past Sunday morning. We arrived at the church a little earlier then expected because I misjudged how close it was. That is not a bad thing, but there was a sense of perhaps we had arrived too early. So, we waited for about five minutes in the parking lot asking God to show us if this was to be our church home before going in. As we walked in, we were greeted by several people, which was nice. Then things began to change.

A man walked up to introduce himself; I wish I could remember his name, but there were just too many names to remember. As he did, another man said, watch out for him because he is from New York. Well, we quickly informed him that we were from New York and New Jersey and immediately struck up a conversation. There was something very home feeling almost brotherly that came from talking with this man.

Soon the service started and we stood up to sing. As we did, people were still coming up to introduce themselves to us. In addition to this, both my wife and I commented how even though there have been good churches that we have been in since we left New Jersey, we have not felt the power and flow of the Holy Spirit as strong as we did in this churches worship service. On this alone, we were strongly feeling that this might be our new church home.

Something that amazed me was that during that worship time, the pastor made a point of walking up to me and introducing himself and speaking with me and there was just something in his eyes that I knew was genuine. It was not out of obligation of being pastor, but just out of love that he walked over and spoke with me and I could feel it in his handshake and his speech and it make me feel good inside and in my spirit.

The service was great although the pastor mentioned several times that this was not a normal service. In fact, at one point he even turned to me and asked if there was anything else that I would need to know that God was calling me to know that this was a good church to be my new church home. I believe that God set this particular service up for our need so that we would know that this is our new church. And if all of this was not enough, God did one more thing.

At almost the end of the service, the pastor talked about a member of the church who was in need and how the family was in financial need because of medical issues the family was going through. He spoke about the fact that we as Christians should be focused on loving on another and that we should be known by our love. That Jesus told us to love and that was our “Goal” as a Christian to love. I was sold. Not that I needed more at this point, but that was the nail in the coffin for me and the final confirmation that I would need to tell me that this was the church that God is calling me to be at and I am very thankful to God for having this church there and calling us to it.

As a side note, as a parent, you want your kids to enjoy church. This is especially true when you have teenagers. The pastor mentioned that our oldest was a teenager and two amazing things happened. First, we discovered that God had us sitting in front of the youth group and second more then half of them came up and introduced themselves and invited my child out to youth. They made her feel so welcome that she not only wants to come back to the church but she is really looking forward to coming out to youth on Wednesday night.

God is so awesome and I am so thankful that he has led us to this church and I am looking forward to becoming part of this church as we move forward. I want to encourage you that if you are looking for a church or find yourself looking for a church in the future pray and keep searching because God will bring you to that perfect church where you will feel the love and presence of God flowing.

INTRODUCTION

When we walk with God, he will ask us to do things for him. He never makes us, but gently asks us. And when we obey, we often become the hand of God to bless people. Today, I had one of those experiences.

BEING THE HAND OF GOD

Today, July 19, I was on my way to work. In my car CD player, I had a message from Jerry Savelle playing whose topic was “Hunting down the Blessing Blockers.” He was discussing the things that get in the way of receiving God’s blessing and strongly urging us to repent from them to keep the flow from God open. One of these blessing blockers is disobedience. When we are walking in disobedience to God, we are sinning against him and our blessings are blocked by own actions. Good message that I was very much enjoying.

In the middle of this message, after I had given a rousing AMEN to what brother Jerry was sharing about being obedient, I noticed a man walking down the highway on the other side of the road. Immediately, God told me to go and pick the man up because he needed help. Well, I was on my way to work and furthermore, I was listening to some very good teaching on the word of God. I didn’t have time to do something outside of my plan for the day. And I was certain that God must have known that. Then, as God has planned this on purpose, brother Jerry said “Jesus said why call me Lord if you do not what I tell you too.” The funny thing is that until that moment I had not realized that I was striving against the will of God. I saw it as I just had a plan and that I needed to complete it. However, God had another plan, and that one needed to be completed.

I turned the car around, which took several minutes as I was not in a good place to turn around and the highways in Texas all have medians. But I got the car around and went looking for the man. As I began to return to where I saw him, God told me that the man ran out of gas. So, what did I do? I exited the highway and looked at the gas stations and the man was not there. At this point, I said to God, “I guess this was just an obedience thing and I was not supposed to actually pick up the man since I can’t find him.” God responded, “I didn’t tell you to exit the highway, I just told you he ran out of gas.” You see I put on that if the man had run out of gas then he must be at a gas station, but that is not what God told me or what he told me to do. He then added, “Now get back on the highway and go pick up that man.” I repented and did just what God told me to do.

As I pulled up to the man, I startled him. I am not sure if he thought I might maybe was going to hit him or he was just not expecting someone to stop, but I did startle him. I asked him if he wanted a ride and he immediately accepted. I learned the man’s name was Andrew and I told him about the fact that God told me to come and pick him up. Andrew then informed me that he had been praying to God for help when I stopped to pick him up. I found out that he ran out of gas, as I already knew, and that he was on the way to help out a friend when he did. He asked me if I could bring him to the friend’s house where he would wait, because the friend had to go one without him when they discovered that he ran out of gas. So, I headed down the road to bring him where he asked me to drop him off.

As I was driving, God told me that I needed to get him gas and take him back to his car. Well, I didn’t have a problem with bringing him back, but I did have a problem with the potential money part. You see money has been real tight and I was not even sure if I would have enough to make it until my next paycheck. But I knew that obedience was more important and that God did promise in his word to supply ever need. I brought the topic up with Andrew and he agreed that we could stop and get gas. The only problem was that neither of us had a gas can and therefore we would have to get one.

We pulled up to the gas station with a convenience store attached. We walked in and found a gas can that, I would learn later, was more money they he had on him. However, God told me to get the gas and I told Andrew that I was going to buy the gas can and the gas for the car. He thanked me and we did just that.

On the car ride back to his car, I learned more about this man. He had been in prison and there he really got connected with Jesus. However, he was not where he wanted to be with God at this time. He only had a few dollars in his pocket and was in need of the Lord to help him. I knew that this was a divine appointment without any doubt when I began to help and minister to Andrew as we drove back to his car.

This is where God was really cool. We got to the car, which was off the highway on a side street off of one of the exits very hidden from plain sight. As we began to put the gas in the car, a police officer pulled up behind my car. Andrew became a bit nervous. I walked over to the police officer who asked me if Andrew had run out of gas. I informed him that was the case and that I was instructed by God to help Andrew. I further told him that we were going to finish with the gas and that I was going to pray with Andrew and we would be on our way. The officer smiled big and thanked me for helping out and then radioed into the office that he didn’t need a tow-truck. So, if I had not listened when God told me to get Andrew gas his car would have been towed.

The police officer left and Andrew told me that ever since prison, he gets really nervous around police officers. I told him that I had nothing to fear because the favor of God walked with me. Andrew smiled and calmed down. We finished with the gas and I prayed over Andrew.

God spoke to me again telling me to give him some money, which I did. Andrew looked shocked and at first told me that I didn’t have to give him anything more then I did. However, I told him that this is what God wanted to do for him and he accepted the money.

After I finished with Andrew I drove off knowing that I had done the will of God and been his hand in being a blessing to a man who will not soon forget how God reached down and touched him. Praise God.

SCRIPTURE

This verse is sobering and perhaps even sounds harsh or mean. However, God is love and this verse is meant to be a blessing to us. Because when we listen and obey, God fills us and blesses us in abundance. And who doesn’t want to be filled with God’s love, God’s blessings, and God’s presence. Follow what he tells you to do today.

CONCLUSION

God never asks us to do anything that is not meant to advance his kingdom. In fact, all he asks us to do is to be blessings to people so that they can see the love of God in us and want what we have. Be a blessing to someone today.

Until Next Time,

I want to thank the great guys over at My Life Ministries (http://mylifeministries.org/) for encouraging me and hosting this blog. If you haven’t done so yet, hop over to http://mylifeministries.org/ and take a look around. Join the forums and become part of the family.

Also, if you have a testimony, email it to me at testify {at} fireknights {dot} net. I would love to hear it and I may just post it here on the blog.

INTRODUCTION

One of the worst experiences as a parent is to see something bad happen to one of your children. Recently, I had this happen as my oldest had gotten injured and God showed up in power.

THE POWER OF PRAYER

Friday night, July 6, my family and I were heading out to our car to go out to rent a movie to watch that evening. As we got to the car, I had taken a bag of garbage over to the dumpster and was on my way back to my family when I heard a scream. Not just any scream, but that blood curling scream of a child who was in pain. Worse, the scream of my eldest daughter who was in pain.

Immediately, I raced to the car to find out what had happened. James, my youngest, was playing, at least in his mind, with Katie, my oldest, and had closed the car door on Katie before she could get in. Unknown to James was that Katie’s hand was in the door jam and was caught in the door when James slammed it shut. This accounts for the scream of pain that I had heard.

When I arrived on the scene, I immediately looked at my daughter’s hand. The door had caught her pinky finger between the two knuckles that allow the finger to bend. To make it even worse, I could see that Katie’s finger was broken as the finger bent a good at about a good forty-five degree angle between these two knuckles where there is nothing but a straight bone except Katie’s was no longer straight.

Immediately our plans changed. I was bringing my daughter to a medical clinic place as our doctor’s office was closed and the emergency room had a large wait. However, all the doctor’s and clinics in Texas seem to be equipped with x-ray and the tools to handle broken bones that an emergency room visit is just not necessary.

We pulled up to the clinic and parked. Before we went inside, I told Katie that we were going to pray and believe on God for healing. We prayed together the Scriptures for healing (Psalm 107:20, Psalm 103:3, Isaiah 53:5) as well as the ones that declare we can ask for anything in Jesus name and receive it (John 15:7, John 14:14, Mark 11:24). We did not see a change in her finger, but we believed and went inside the clinic.

I signed Katie in and sat down to fill out the paperwork. Just as I was finishing, Katie turned to me and said, “Dad look.” She was holding up her finger, which now was whole. It was not bent, it was not broken, it was nothing but whole. Katie added as I looked at her finger, “And it doesn’t hurt anymore.” Somewhere between signing Katie in and finishing filling out the paperwork unseen by either of our eyes, God fixed and healed Katie’s finger.

Well, I was ready to go home at this point, but as it happened this was the exact moment that we got called. So, I did what any born again word of faith Bible believing Christian would have done. I went back into the room and told everyone who came in to see Katie that God had healed her. It amazed me how many people did not believe us. They still took x-rays and as we already knew discovered that she had nothing wrong with her. Eventually, the doctor came in and told us to keep an eye on it. At that point, I just smiled and nodded because they didn’t believe me anyway.

We returned home to great joy had by all the family especially James who was happy that God healed her and she was no longer hurt. PRAISE GOD!

SCRIPTURE

God promises healing and promises to answer prayers if we believe and do not doubt. Well, Katie and I did not doubt and we saw God move to heal her finger and show himself strong to my daughter whom I am sure will not soon forget what God did.

CONCLUSION

If you are sick and suffering, pray to God and believe for healing. If he doesn’t do anything, you have lost nothing. But should he show up and heal you, you will have a powerful testimony to His love and grace.

Until Next Time,

I want to thank the great guys over at My Life Ministries (http://mylifeministries.org/) for encouraging me and hosting this blog. If you haven’t done so yet, hop over to http://mylifeministries.org/ and take a look around. Join the forums and become part of the family.

Also, if you have a testimony, email it to me at testify {at} fireknights {dot} net. I would love to hear it and I may just post it here on the blog.

INTRODUCTION

What if God told you to buy a lottery ticket? What if God told you that he was going to ensure that you won the lottery? What if you were or are a Christian and know what the Bible says about Gambling, would you do it? Well, that is exactly what happened to me and here is what happened.

GOD AND THE LOTTERY

On Wednesday June 20th, 2007, while driving home, I saw a billboard for the Texas Lottery and it jumped off of the sign and glowed and just screamed at me. Well, I knew that there was no way that God wanted me to play the lottery so I rebuked that in Jesus name. However, it would not leave my thoughts. It kept constantly coming back up in my mind and pushing itself to the front. The strange thing was that it had the same sense and feeling of when I receive something that I know is from God, but I knew it couldn’t be and kept rebuking it. It got so strong at one point that I enlisted my wife to pray with me against this obvious thing from the devil. My wife had an interesting comment in her prayer after I had rebuked the devil and told him to flee and get that lottery thought out of my mind. She said in prayer, “God, if somehow this is from you, forgive us and clearly give us the numbers.”

Well, I was a bit shocked, but often my wife is wiser then I am and I agreed with her certain in my mind that God did not want me to play the lottery. That very night in prayer, as I prayed before me in large numbers that glowed, I saw six numbers. The numbers were given in a specific order. Immediately, I remembered what my wife had prayed even though I was still convinced that it must not be from God. In fact, I was so convinced that somehow the enemy had gotten intermixed with my attempts to pray that I opened my eyes to not see the numbers. But every time I closed my eyes to focus in on prayer, the numbers were there. After a bit of going back and forth, I just told God that if this was him, then he would have to make it clear, and he did. The numbers glowed brighter and resonated in my spirit. I wrote them down and decided that I had better play the lottery still unsure of what that meant.

The next morning was Friday. I mention this because I woke up with an overwhelming sense that I had to buy the lottery ticket today. I was not really sure why because the lottery was drawn on Saturday, but I could not shake it and decided that God knew better what he was doing then I was. So, I went into a convenience store and bought the ticket. At this point, I am still feeling uneasy about this because I was having a hard time wrapping my mind around the concept that God wanted me to buy a lottery ticket. But I bought the ticket.

I get out in the car, and I get an overwhelming sense that something is wrong. To be clear, I did not get a sense that buying the ticket was wrong, but that I had the wrong ticket. This was supported by two facts. First, the Texas Lottery is not dependant on the order of the numbers because you color in the six blocks on one game panel and I knew that the order was important. Second, the billboard for the lottery had a specific number on it as to what the jackpot was and this ticket’s listed jackpot did not match that number. I would have shaken this off, but it was clear and strong that this was the wrong ticket.

To determine what was wrong, I decided to drive to work in a manner that would have me pass the very same billboard. When I did, I had my wife read it (because it was facing the other side of traffic) and discovered to my surprise that there were two Texas Lotteries (actually there are more, I just thought that there was one). As my wife read off which lottery it was, I realized that I had bought the wrong ticket as God was telling me.

So, I found another convenience store. When I got to the lottery station, I pulled out the appropriate ticket. This lottery was one of those that had you pick five of the six numbers and then select the special number for your last pick. Since God had already told me that the order was important, I then selected my numbers placing the last number given as the special number.

Here is where things really start to get interesting. As I looked at the card, the remaining six numbers filled in and made a pattern that was the number seven. I took this as an odd occurrence and possible sign that I was doing what God really wanted me to do because it still seemed odd to me. Furthermore, the original ticket I bought was to be drawn on Saturday as I understood the lottery to be, but this one was to be drawn Friday night. In other words, if I had waited until Saturday like I thought I had the time to do, I would have missed this drawing. This is why God impressed upon me that it was important that I buy the ticket on Friday.

I bought the right ticket and went back to the car. My wife was quick to point out that God must really want to do something with us because the enemy attacked and made us buy the wrong ticket to begin with. I agreed, but still had an issue with the concept that God wanted me to buy a lottery ticket. But I did it and I was obedient and I prayed to God that if somehow I was missing this, that he forgive me.

Now, during this time, I had been listening to a series on CD by Kenneth and Gloria Copeland about the power of Faith (Victory Campaign 2003). I am a Word of Faith Holy Spirit filled believer, but I have not walked in great victory because I had not believed and cut off the Holy Spirit from sending it to me. I knew the scriptures, but it was still something I was struggling with. Well, during this series, they were speaking about believing God and having your faith out there for God to perform his word and prosper you. I knew that God was speaking to me and I went to him in repentance and prayer. During this prayer, God clearly showed me (and to be honest he had showed me the night before, but I had not believed it) that I had to believe that I was going to win the lottery because God was going to make it happen. All I had to do was believe.

Well, I struggled all day long and the enemy did his share to keep me having to press into God. I was praying almost all day that God would prosper me, bless me, fill me, give me to the overflow and every other scripture that I knew about prosperity. I was pressing in with all that I had and still had to struggle against the unbelief that kept trying to find its way back into me. My wife joined me in this prayer and believed with me. Actually, it was easier for her to believe then for me, but then that is why I have a great wife.

Now, before I tell you what happened, I need to explain a misconception that I had. I had put my faith in God having me win the lottery, but I had inadvertently believed the lottery to be my source. I saw God as the one that was going to have me win, and then saw the lottery as the way I was going to get out of debt. This was not right and I had to get myself correct in my thinking. That came from another gift from the Copeland’s in the “From Faith to Faith” daily devotional. As God would have it, the subject for that day was that we should give and expect a harvest a concept that I believed in. But one of the points they made was that God was our source and that we should always look to him. It was then that I realized my mistake about seeing the lottery as my source and repented and felt the presence of God come over me. And he spoke to me, but before I tell you what he told me, let me tell you the outcome of the lottery.

When I checked the numbers of the lottery, I discovered that I did not win the jackpot prize. I was bummed. I felt like a failure because I knew that God was well able to have me win the lottery and I really thought I heard him tell me that I would win. This then did not connect with my understanding of scripture and that God could carry out his promises. Because remember, I believed that God told me that I would win the lottery and I did not win the jackpot. This was not that I asked to win the lottery at least not before God told me that I would win and that I had to believe on him that he would make me win. He told me first. So, I was struggling as I looked to the book I mentioned earlier by the Copelands. That is when I received revelation.

Now, I did in fact win the lottery. As it happens, on this particular lottery game, if you match the special number, you win a prize. I did match the special number and won four times the cost of the ticket as a prize. I didn’t win the jackpot, but God never promised me that I would. However, God did have me win the lottery just as he told me I would.

Back to my revelation about God being my source. When I got that and prayed to him, he spoke to me. What he said is powerful. He told me the following. “I had you buy the ticket and win the lottery so that I could show you that just as I had you win the lottery I can and will prosper you. Just believe in me and I will see to you.”

I now know that God will always provide for me and will prosper me as his word declares because he loves me.

SCRIPTURE

I am God’s, Jesus’ and the Holy Spirit’s. I am not my own but am Christ’s. I am one of his sheep and I hear his voice and I follow what he tells me to do even if it does not make sense to me.

Jesus told me to pray and ask for the lottery to be mine and I did. This was because I was in Jesus and standing on his word that was in me and therefore I saw what I asked for happen.

God is my source and I am his. My life is his, and he is my source for all things. Furthermore, if I remain in him, I can ask for whatever I want and he will give it to me. This is what God was teaching me and I am grateful for it.

CONCLUSION

God’s ways are not our ways, but he does have a plan and a purpose for each of us because he loves us and wants to bless us, prosper us, heal us and grow us into maturity. Follow him when he speaks to you and do not doubt no matter how odd it may sound.

Until Next Time,

I want to thank the great guys over at My Life Ministries (http://mylifeministries.org/) for encouraging me and hosting this blog. If you haven’t done so yet, hop over to http://mylifeministries.org/ and take a look around. Join the forums and become part of the family.

Also, if you have a testimony, email it to me at testify {at} fireknights {dot} net. I would love to hear it and I may just post it here on the blog.

INTRODUCTION

When it comes to money, God promises that if you do not without your tithe or your offerings then he will prosper you and protect your money.

A THIEF IN THE NIGHT

During the week of June 25th, my church hosted another church from out of state to train them on outreach and evangelism. We had many events planned to give them a broad taste of different forms of reaching the people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. One of these events was ministering to the children at the Boys and Girls Club of America. We had brought in a wide variety of things to do including face painting, games, worship and food. The main goal was to show the children and any parents who came out that Jesus loves them no matter what the world does to them and it was an amazing success.

On the way home, my family and I decided to get pizza for dinner because it was cheap and easy. We had taken out some money from the bank and got our pizza. While there, my wife helped out another couple by trading their one hundred dollar bill for five twenties because the pizza place did not take hundred dollar bills. After we paid for the pizza, my wife put the money in her pocket and we took the pizza home. We enjoyed our dinner.

Later that night, my wife went to empty her pockets and the money was missing. She immediately did a search to find the money and came up empty. She began to be positive that the money that she put in her pocket, and shoved to the bottom of the pocket, while in the pizza place must have fallen out and therefore be on the floor of the pizza place. I told my wife that even if that was true, God had promised to protect our money and that we would not accept that the enemy could just steal from us at will because we know that we are not under his will, but God’s. I even told my wife that if God needed to take the money from the floor of the pizza place and transport it into our hands, then he would do that for us.

We prayed.

I felt in my spirit that I should check the car. I took the dog out for a walk as I went and checked on my wife’s side of the car. As I opened the door, laying right there in the door frame was the money waiting for me. Now, you have to realize that my wife had placed the money in her pocket in the pizza place. The fact that it was in the car was really not possible. Furthermore, where the money was in the door frame of the car was not possible by just falling out of my wife’s pocket because the simple fact of her exiting the car as we got home would have had the money fall onto the ground. From there it was several hours before I went out and only God knows what would have happened to that money if it had fallen on the ground.

The only answer was that God placed the money there from wherever it had fallen out because he was protecting our money.

SCRIPTURE

The enemy tried to steal from us, but we are tithers and God promises here in Malachi that he would protect the money of those who tithe.

God watches over his word and is quick to perform it if we stand on his promises in faith. Which is what we did in this situation and God honored that by returning the money to us.

CONCLUSION

God is awesome in his love and care for us. Put your trust and faith in him and he will be quick to perform the promises in his word for you.

Until Next Time,

I want to thank the great guys over at My Life Ministries (http://mylifeministries.org/) for encouraging me and hosting this blog. If you haven’t done so yet, hop over to http://mylifeministries.org/ and take a look around. Join the forums and become part of the family.

Also, if you have a testimony, email it to me at testify {at} fireknights {dot} net. I would love to hear it and I may just post it here on the blog.