YOUR ACCOUNT HAS BEEN CANCELLED

YOUR ACCOUNT HAS BEEN CANCELLED.

How would you feel if you opened your INBOX this morning and found a message from God that read "YOUR ACCOUNT [debt] HAS BEEN CANCELLED"? Every sin you have ever committed erased. Every ugly or hateful or vulgar word you ever spoke, deleted. Every immoral thought you ever had, forgotten. How would you feel?

I got that email this morning....not from God, of course, but from a website that I had cancelled. Yet those words just hit me in the face! That is what is written across my life. Not because of my goodness or because of anything I have done. But rather, because of what JESUS has done! He paid a debt He did not owe because I owed a debt I could not pay! And across my account in His books are written the words YOUR ACCOUNT HAS BEEN CANCELLED. And the wonderful thing is, it is cancelled for all eternity!!!

You see Jesus paid the debt that I could not pay at Calvary when He died on the cross. My sin had sentenced me to death. But Jesus took my place. Though perfect and sinless Himself, He took my place. He died the death, paid the price, that I should have paid. And by believing what He did, putting my faith in Him that the debt IS paid, and receiving the life....eternal life....that He has offered to me, I am FREE!!

Today Jesus offers the same to anyone who will receive what He is offering. There is nothing....hear me.....NOTHING that God won't forgive. He offers this free gift of eternal life to anyone who will accept it. He will cleanse you...wipe your slate clean and write across your account PAID IN FULL.

If you want to know more, contact me by clicking on the COMMENT button below or call 1-800-NEEDHIM.

TENDING YOUR GARDEN

Our Sunday School class has been studying through a Max Lucado series. Sunday's lesson was the title of today's blog (Thanks, Max!) In his book, Just Like Jesus, Max wrote, "If the heart is a greenhouse and our thoughts are seeds, shouldn't we be careful about what we sow? Shouldn't we be selective about the seeds we allow to come into the greenhouse? Shouldn't there be a sentry at the door? Isn' t guarding the heart a strategic task?"

Continuing the thoughts from Saturday's blog, it SO very important the thoughts that we allow to take root in our minds. As Max says, we must be selective of the seeds we allow in our garden. As we used to tell our kids "Garbage in, garbage out". If we feed on the things which lead to discontentment, bitterness, anger, greed, and a critical spirit, those are the very things we will find ourselves living with.

How do you feed on those things, you ask? Start with what you watch on TV. There is not much healthy fare there any more...at least not on the prime time networks. Either you will be feasting on sitcoms which are filled with sex, homosexuality, ungodly attitudes toward husbands and wives, children and everyone else in general, and are void of any morals whatsoever or you can watch news broadcasts and documentaries such as 48 Hours, 20/20, etc. which are so filled with bad news and alarming stories that you come away filled with fear and anxiety! Now I'm not suggesting that we live with our heads buried in the sand. Yes we need to know what is going on in the world, but we do not need to SATURATE ourselves with it. A little dab will do ya! However, I will not say that everything on TV is bad. Quite the contrary. There is much good on television, too. Cooking shows, shows to teach you how to organize your home, how to decorate, how to prepare your home for sale, how to landscape your yard, how to quilt, sew or paint and much more. There is the history channel which many people love. I enjoy the travel channel from time to time, seeing places in the world that I will probably never travel to. There are lots of old movies that are wonderful! But it is all about being SELECTIVE!

What do you read? Do you read racy romance novels or magazines? Maybe you just like novels or biographies, home improvement or gardening magazines. What you are filling your mind with is very important. If what you are reading is not immoral, it can still be dangerous if it makes you covet what someone else has or makes you discontent with what you have. Or if you are spending so much time reading these that you never have time to read God's word, then there is not a balance. Again, being SELECTIVE is key!

Who do you spend time with? If you find that you are spending time with people who are negative and critical, who never see anything but what is wrong with someone, then maybe you need to find a new group of friends. Negative people, critical people are draining. I once heard a story told by Florence Littaur, Christian author and speaker. She and her son were driving down the expressway. In the center between the two sides was planted a wide stretch of wild flowers. Florence pointed them out to her son with great excitement because of their beauty. Her son quickly pointed out a solitary weed in the center of the expanse of beauty. They rode in silence for a few moments when the son said,

"Mom, why do I do that?"

"Do what?" Florence asked.

"Always see the weeds, when everyone else sees the flowers?"

Some people's personality type is such that they are prone to see the weeds instead of the flowers. But I truly believe that if we ask the Lord to help us see the flowers more often that we see the weeds, He will do that.

We live in a world that is tainted by sin and it will be that way til Jesus comes back. But we do not have to plant weeds. We can plant flowers of joy, goodness, mercy and grace. We can look for the flowers in others, instead of looking for the weeds. Believe me, if you look for the weeds you can find them! None of us are perfect. No matter how hard we try, we will NEVER be perfect this side of Heaven. We are "trophies of God's grace", however, and we should be willing to extend grace to others.

Today I urge you to begin to plant seeds, seeds of beauty and not weeds. Listen to yourself. The next time you find yourself being critical, pointing out all of someone's faults or all the things wrong with your job or your church or your spouse....STOP! Ask yourself what kind of seeds are you sowing. Try instead to see the good, the beautiful, the miraculous things around you. Paul put it this way:

"Finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatosever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report....focus on these things!" Phil 4: 8.

A NEW DAY

"forgetting those things which are behind, [I press forward]..." Phil. 3: 13



The past can haunt us til the day we die IF we choose to let it. All of us have a past....some worse than others. We have all experienced hurt, disappointment, and/or rejection of some form or another at the hands of another in our lifetime. Some have experienced far worse....abuse, torture, murder of a loved one, death, suicide, etc. Yet if we continue to live in the past, we choose to miss the blessings of TODAY! Yes, I know how difficult it is to let it go, but let it go you must. The longer you cling to the hurts or failures of the past, the longer you will be in bondage to your past.



The past can so paralyze you that you are no good for what God has in store for you TODAY. God says "Sufficient for today is the evil thereof!" (Matt. 6:34) One of my favorite quotes says:

Release the regrets of yesterday

Refuse the fears of tomorrow

Receive instead the peace of today

2008 is a new year. What happened in 2007 or 1997 or 1957 is GONE!!!! LET IT GO!!! It is a choice. You can choose to wallow in self pity, hurt, anger, bitterness or regret for the rest of your life, or you can choose to turn your back on those things and press on for all that God has in store for TODAY!! Which will you choose?

You have heard the old saying "The mind is the devil's playground"....Well, this saying is true. You can dwell on things that are hurtful, negative and fearful, allowing Satan to consume you with bitterness, hatred, fear and regret. Or you can focus your mind elsewhere. It is your CHOICE!

When you are alone and have time on your hands, what do you find yourself dwelling on? Are you reliving the past? Are you re-trying all the old hurts or wrongs that have been done to you by another? Are you replaying old arguments in your head? Are you nursing old wounds? Are you beating yourself up for sins that you committed? Are you dwelling on the "what-if's" or "if-onlies"? If you are doing any of these things, you are wasting God's time....TODAY! He has given you THIS day to glorify Him, to share Him with someone else, to bless someone else not to wallow in your past. Satan is doing a number on you and it's time you fought back.

When those old thoughts begin to fill your mind, you must take offensive action. Use them as a tool to turn your thoughts to the Lord. Begin to quote scripture. If you don't know any by heart, then now is the time to commit some to memory. Or write some verses on 3x5 cards and put them where you can see them, keep a few in your purse or wallet, so that you can pull them out anytime, anywhere. Allow those thoughts to immediately send you to the Lord in prayer, asking Him to take those negative thoughts captive. (II Cor. 10: 5b) Substitute praise music for what is going on in your mind. You can't sing praises to the Lord and dwell on the past at the same time!! Soon Satan will learn that trying to take you down that road is NOT going to work. You will find yourself breaking free from the chains of the past that have bound you for so long.

THIS IS THE DAY THE LORD HAS MADE. I WILL REJOICE AND BE GLAD IN IT!!!! (Ps 118:24)

The past is just that....PAST! Today is a new day...a gift to be dedicated to the Lord, to be enjoyed, to be used for Him. Let go today. Do not waste another minute dwelling on the past. IT IS HISTORY!!! Redeem the time...don't waste it! Every second you waste thinking of and dwelling on the past, is a second you could have been focusing on Christ or doing what He has called you to do TODAY.

ONE MORE TIME....

"Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before [ahead], I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of Jesus Christ." Phil. 3:13, 14

BLESSING THOSE WHO CURSE YOU

A number of years ago I ran across a devotional by Os Hillman. I subscribed then to his daily devotionals for the workplace, Today God Is First. I cannot tell you how many times God has used these devotionals to speak to me. If you are unfamiliar with Os Hillman, I urge you to go to http://www.marketplaceleaders.org/ and sign up for these daily email devotionals. I guarantee you will be blessed! The following is one that speaks volumes:

Blessing Those Who Curse You

Today God Is First Volume 1 by Os Hillman

..."Leave him alone; let him curse, for the Lord has told him to. It may be that the Lord will see my distress and repay me with good for the cursing I am receiving today." - 2 Samuel 16:11-12

As David's enemies were increasing and he was fleeing the city from his son who was seeking to take his throne, a man named Shimei began heaving rocks and cursing him as he passed by. Cursing the king was against the law, so David had every right to cut off the man's head -- as his generals were encouraging him to do. Here we see the difference between Saul and David in their response to those who would seek to do them harm. This is the defining difference between a leader who seeks to lead through a vertical dimension with God versus a horizontal fix-it mode. God knew David as a man after His own heart. Yet, David was a murderer, adulterer, and had failed in many areas of his life. But one thing separated this leader from all the rest: He had a heart that sought to please God and be in His will. When David blew it, he repented.

What is the purpose God desires to accomplish with the estranged relationship you may have with someone? Has He brought this affront to find out what is in your heart today? Will you seek revenge and solve the problem yourself? Or will you find the grace to allow God to carry out vengeance in His time if it is needed?

When I learned this lesson to stay vertical with God and avoid the trap of fixing things in my own energies, it was a day of freedom. No longer was it my problem. We must examine our own heart in these matters. But if we are clean, then this affront is for character building. It is the only way God builds the deepest level of character in His saints. A.W. Tozer tells us, "It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply." God actually rises up storms of conflict in relationships at times in order to accomplish that deeper work in our character. We cannot love our enemies in our own strength. This is graduate-level grace. Are you willing to enter this school? Are you willing to take the test? If you pass, you can expect to be elevated to a new level in the Kingdom. For He brings us through these tests as preparation for greater use in the Kingdom. You must pass the test first.

DEAD WOMAN WALKING

A “Dead” Heart
By Tracie Miles

“Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” Psalm 51:12 (NIV)

Devotion:

I had been on commitment-overload for the past few months. My obligations of being a wife and mother of three, serving in ministry, and volunteering in the community were starting to take a toll on me. For weeks I had felt discouraged and downtrodden, but I couldn’t put my finger on what was wrong.

One morning my brother called, we chatted for a moment and then he wanted to tell me about a dream he had about me the night before. He explained that in his dream, I had somehow passed away, but apparently I was unaware that I was no longer with the living. I walked around smiling and laughing and even attended my own funeral, never once realizing that I was no longer alive. We laughed at such a silly dream (even though I secretly thought it was a little creepy).

I scurried about my chores at home and checked my email that day, all the while trying to put my brother’s disturbing dream out of my mind. Scanned my inbox, I noticed an email from my mother. She had forwarded me a story that had circulated the internet about an 87 year old woman who had decided to go to college.

Due to her vivacious love for life, the woman was asked to give a speech at the end of her first semester. As she concluded her speech, she provided three secrets to staying young, being happy and achieving success. The last secret caught my attention: Laugh and find humor every day, for there are so many people walking around who are dead and don’t even know it.

My heart skipped a beat. I read it again, and again. How odd to hear that analogy twice in one morning? Suddenly tears came to my eyes, and I immediately felt the need to go to the Lord in prayer. Now I knew why I felt discouraged lately. Although my body was alive, my heart was temporarily “dead.”

When was the last time I spent any quality time with my Lord? When was the last time I delved into reading God’s word and focused on sincere prayer? Although I had been going through the motions of my every day life, fulfilling all of my obligations and commitments, I felt dead inside. Empty. I had so many blessings, but I had lost the joy of my salvation as I allowed the busyness, frustrations, anger and resentments of life to affect the status of my heart. I thanked God for speaking to me through my family, first in a brother’s dream, then through a mother’s story.

Dear friend, is it possible that your heart is “dead” today? Have you been carrying around a heavy heart and have not understood why? Just as our heart yearns for a loved one who is far away, our soul innately yearns for Christ. If you are feeling empty and burdened, I encourage you to consider what you have been trying to fill your heart with. Have you been searching for joy in your job, your friends, material items, volunteer work, your spouse, etc.?

Those things will never quench the thirst that our soul has for God’s love. Ask Him to revive your heart today and focus on His grace and mercy, or invite Him into your heart for the first time and allow Him to fill that special place in you that is His alone.

Dear Lord, restore to me the joy of my salvation and bring back the strength and hope my heart once had. Cleanse my soul with your grace and mercy. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

www.Proverbs31.org

GOD MEANT IT FOR GOOD

Yesterday I talked about starting the New Year with a clean slate. Paul says "Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth for those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of Jesus Christ." (Phil. 3: 13, 14) We must leave the past in the past and PRESS ON!!

Things in our past can so grip and paralyze us that we find it impossible to move on. Yet God wants us to give HIM our past, our present and our future. He is the great I AM. Not I WAS nor I WILL BE...He is the great I AM!! He wants us to live in this very moment, forgetting the past and trusting Him with our future.

Jon Walker puts it eloquently in the following devotional. I hope you will copy this and keep it in a file somewhere for those days when Satan tries to discourage you or drown you in the past. Maybe God will bring someone across your path who needs to hear these words of encouragement also.


God Meant It For Good

by Jon Walker

"You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result " (Genesis 50:20 NIV)
~~~ ~~~ ~~~

The life of Joseph was anything but peaceful. It was filled with youthful folly, broken dreams, and the mean-spirited actions of others. Yet he remained a man remarkable for his lack of bitterness or regret, always seeing God as the "Great Engineer" behind even the worst of circumstances.

In a final confrontation with his brothers, he graciously noted,"You meant it for bad; God meant it for good."

The theology packed in that statement is astounding. "God meant it for good" means
you can accept the past. No sin, no action, no choice on your part is too big for God to handle or too big to be worked for the good of those who love him and are called according to his name. Just ask Joseph. Better yet, ask his fearful and famished brothers, who were forced to rely on him for survival.

You can embrace the present. There’s no need to play the "what if"game. The past is gone, and no energy you expend will ever change it. The future is in God's omnipotent hands, so you’re free to focus on the present. Your job is to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, trusting him to forgive the past and transform the future. Martyred missionary Jim Eliot once wrote, "Wherever you are, be all there… not living in the past and not fantasizing about the future. God wants you in the present because that’s where his grace will flow.

You can look expectantly toward the future. Even if you make mistakes today, God still controls your future. Walking in the Spirit, you can live life to the fullest, unafraid of making mistakes and unconcerned you may stumble into some terrible circumstance that takes you out of God's control. Even when things appear to be terrible, you can trust that God is working out some divine plan through you.

What does this mean?

· No matter how bad things get ,God is still able to bring good out of it. Today, thank God that nothing " no disaster, no delay " is bigger that his ability to turn it into something good and godly.

· Thank God and let go. Thank God that he is sovereign over your past, your present, and your future. Give God the circumstances, disasters, hindrances, hurts, and sins from your past. Give God your current situation, your disasters, hindrances, hurts, and sins of today. Praise God that he can work anything in your future for godly good, that you can walk in confidence that there is nothing anyone can do to you, or anything you can do that will be beyond the reach of God’s Grace and redemption.

· Look for God’s hand . Walking by faith means you see God’s hand even in the most difficult of circumstances. You trust in his ability and his willingness to transform the bad into godly good. God is not limited by people’s motives. In other words, it does not matter why someone hurt you; God can still transform a deliberate, mean-spirited situation into something for his good.

· What will you allow God to change? There it is: some situation, or event, or person in your life who, as far as you can tell, meant it for bad. How do you think God meant it for good? Ask God what he wants you to do with this situation (event or person). When he answers, do it.

© 2007 Jon Walker. All rights reserved.

NOTE: On October 1, I shared a poem I REFUSE TO BE DISCOURAGED. I did not know the author. I have since learned that the author of that poem is Lita Kurtzer, copyright 1991-1992.

WHAT'S IN STORE FOR 2008?

New beginnings. They're wonderful, aren't they? A clean slate...a blank canvas, all waiting to be written upon. That is what the new year is like to me. "Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new." Out with the old and in with the new. No looking back...just looking forward.

Yet as we stand at the precipice of this new year...2008....one cannot help but wonder what the new year will hold ? When we stood at this same spot last year, looking into the face of 2007, none of us had any idea what the New Year would hold for us. As I think back, I've seen lots of good things that have occurred in the past 12 months...none of which anyone saw coming on Jan. 1, 2007:

A good friend found her soul mate, and is now happily married....

Our son-in-love was offered his "dream job" out of the blue and begins today....

Two of our daughter's friends both thought they would never hold a child, now are both new moms...one to twins!

God moved upon the heart of a woman at church to begin a Christian Writer's Circle...a REAL blessing to me and to others at our church!

I started this blog!!

All of these are wonderful things that have brought great joy and happiness to me and to those I love. Yet, there were also many things that happened this year that have brought great pain and distress to many, things they never dreamed would come their way.

A cousin's cancer spread to her bones and took her life. Less than a month later, her daughter also died of cancer. A husband and father, mother and grandmother were left devastated and alone, experiencing the pain of double loss.

A friend's mother suffered a fall in February that caused her health to steadily decline and she went to be with the Lord shortly before Thanksgiving. This friend entered a world of caregiving and struggles she had never known as well as slowly watching the life of her precious mother ebb away.

Another friend was out for a morning walk, when struck by a car. Her life was nearly lost, but she miraculously survived, but did lose a leg in the process. Now she is faced with the ordeal of healing and learning to adjust to life with an aritificial limb.

Our son and his wife, married only a few short months, had their house flooded during the Christmas holidays of 2006. They had just barely recovered from that when their home was burglarized in March.

Our son's co-worker fell on the job, severely breaking his leg. The leg has not healed properly, workman's comp refuses to pay for the needed bone graft to promote the healing process. He is left without a job and unable to work while his wife has quit her job to care for him and her mother who is in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's.

None of us knows what the next minute, hour or day holds for us. It may be a HUGE blessing or it may a devastating blow. One thing we can be sure of is this....GOD IS IN IT and He will not leave us or forsake us. He has promised to walk with us through the storms of life, to hold our hands, to never let us down and to never let us go.

Helen Steiner Rice, one of my favorite poets, wrote the following poem. It is one of my favorites. May it be a reminder to us to live THIS day, to rejoice in THIS day, for it is all we have.

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow…


Yesterday's dead,
Tomorrow's unborn,
So there's nothing to fear
And nothing to mourn,
For all that is past
And all that has been
Can never return
To be lived once again...
And what lies ahead
Or the things that will be
Are still in GOD'S HANDS
So it is not up to ME
To live in the future
That is God's great unknown
For the past and present
God claims for His own..
So all I need do
Is to live for TODAY
And trust God to show me
THE TRUTH and the WAY..
For it's only the memory
Of things that have been
And expecting tomorrow
To bring trouble again
That fills my today
Which God wants to bless
With uncertain fears
And borrowed distress...
For all I need live for
Is this one little minute,
For life's HERE and NOW
And eternity's in it.

---Helen Steiner Rice