Happy Father’s Day!
And a Special “Happy Father’s Day” to my husband , Dr. Bill Hanshew who gave me two beautiful children. I am thankful that you love God and put Him first above all. You are my sunshine, my very best friend, my protector, and my lover. I love you more and more every day! Faye
To all Father’s, Step-Father’s, Adopted Father’s, Grandfather’s, Great Grandfather’s, Spiritual Dads, & Soon to be Dads who read our magazine, We wish you a Very Happy Father’s Day. May you have a day of peace, Full of God’s Blessings and Love.
Father’s Day – A day set aside for children, young and old, to show their respect and admiration toward their Dad. Even if a Dad is quiet and reserved, maybe hard to talk to, their child can make or buy a card for them, and write in that card exactly what is in their heart for their Dad. This year, take a few minutes out of your busy day and do something special for your Dad. Let him know just how much you care for him and love him. Maybe a card, a phone call, or even take him out to lunch. I am sure he will appreciate it very much. And just one thing to remember. We all have the same Father God who loves each of us unconditionally. When we mess up or do things we later regret and look down on ourselves for, Father God loves us with an unfailing love. Happy Father’s Day to each of you, whether you are a Father, Grandfather, Great-Grandfather, Step-Father, Adopted-Father, or Spiritual Father, we wish you the very best day. God bless you!
Faye Hanshew, Publisher & Editor
Publisher and Editor Faye Hanshew
Article s
Co-Publisher & Co-editor Dr. Bill Hanshew
Dr. Bill Hanshew Earthly Fathers Are Not Perfect Genice Fulton The Fatherless Bishop Frank Dupree Healing in the Atonement Pastor Bill Hackworth The Affirmation of the Father Dr. Dan L. Corse Bringing the Heart of This Son Back to the Father Dave Kachele Two Dads: Only God Could Pull This Off! Jennie Crowell Do you Know His Footsteps? Evangelist/Teacher Rick McKnight Our Compassionate Father Speaker/Author Larry Thompson A Perfect Storm Matthew Deves The Heart of the Father INTERNATIONAL SECTION The Goodness of God Nutritional Information The Holy Spirit TEEN SECTION Fathers Impacting Their Children The Heart of the Father
Ernest Nelson K. Nanor Dewanshu Ahlawat Kenneth Wilson
Mikea F. G. Fulton Stuart E. Smith
TEEN WARRIORS SECTION
My father has impacted me in so many ways. He has taught me to always remain faithful to God. Our heavenly Father also impacts us in many ways. He gives us unconditional love and grace. Imagine, what if we didn't have that unconditional love. Or the unconditional grace? What would our life be like? Pretty empty, right? God created us to prosper. Not to fail. If something bad happens, do not blame it on God. He is the creator of everything good. So, if God is the creator of everything good, and he is also the creator of you......you are one of his good creations. I think that it pretty cool. Life is a constant battle between our flesh and spirit.
by: Mikea F. G. Fulton
God never, ever, wants to see you fall. Not once! Not even after you do something terrible. In the Garden of Eden, remember when God told Adam and Eve that they would die if they ate the forbidden fruit? Then they ended up eating it. But did they die? No. God gave them unconditional love and grace. Because he does not want his children to fail.
Our earthly fathers don't want us to fail either. How do children learn and become the people they are? They learn by watching, watching their parents. Will children actually abide by their parent’s actions, by simply watching? Yes. It's that simple. Children learn from examples. Make your actions good ones. Good actions lead to, good examples which adds up to incredible children of God!
Our Father, who art in heaven, those are the first words in the prayer our Lord Jesus Christ taught us how to pray. The very idea that the Creator of all things, the almighty God would allow us to call Him father is a magnificent thought. Until I myself became a father even I didn’t’ fully grasp this reality. I remember in 1985 when I learned that the results of my wife’s pregnancy test was positive, how I fell to my knees in my dad’s welding shop and cried. I was overwhelmed with the thought that I had helped create another human being and in a matter of 6 months or so that child would be born.
The saying “any man can be a dad but it is a special kind that can be a father” is true. We are not perfect as our Father in heaven is, but there is truly a different level of commitment. When my wife had our 3 children they were delivered by C-section. For many weeks after she came home from the hospital I had to be the one who got up in the middle of the night. This allowed me the first glimpse into the heart of our father. I used to wake up even if the child breathed a little differently. I could feel the weight of my responsibility for his or her life. God also sees us according to scripture even at the moment of conception. His eyes see each
of us, whether we look unto Him or not. He desires a close relationship with us. When I held the child, and fed it in the middle of the night I could sense His holding me. It was as if He was teaching me through this small human being the way He desired to care for His children. He is our provider, our healer, our ever-present help in times of need. God is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, so from birth to the death of
this flesh, He walks with us wanting that fellowship in prayer and in worship. My earthly father is a hardworking man. He is always there when I really need him. Though as a young man he didn’t point me toward God, he has in these latter years come closer to our Father God. Fatherhood comes in all shapes and sizes you know. The more often we imperfect fathers look unto God, the closer we can be to His design for that role. When we learn more who He is to us, the more we can adjust our ways as mere men. The heart of the Father isn’t someone standing over us with a belt awaiting our mistakes so he can administer punishment. It is the stern yet compassionate leader of a family who teaches his children the right way to follow after Jesus Christ. If only we as men can see that picture in our hearts of the man God wants us to be, we would arise to the role of being a father. David often wrote of the protection and majesty of God. Psalms 144:1-3 “Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight; My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower,
and my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust; who subdueth my people under me. Lord, what is man that thou takest knowledge of him! or the son of man that thou makest account of him!” His question wasn’t, was God there for him? He simply couldn’t imagine that he as a man was cared for by the almighty. The heart of a father doesn’t regard our life successes as a road leading away from our children. It is our hope that somehow, we can assist our children to have a better life than our own. God of course made all things and sees things in a way that until eternal life we could not begin to comprehend. It is in that light that we as men feel so inadequate to ever be a father. However, the wonderful news is that we do
not have to do it alone. First, we must come to Him. Once we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior then, we become the sons of God. With His divine hand in our lives we can lead our children to faith. Just like children ourselves, we shall stumble. Just like them we learn how to walk while holding our Father’s hand. We as men should seek to walk with God and know He has a purpose in our lives. Let us lead our children and their children into the loving arms of the one true and living God. Let us teach our children of the greatest of all fathers. Wishing you all a glorious Father’s Day this month. To my dad, Eugene Smith, thank you for all you have done for me over these years of my life.
Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.” Too often, children accept or reject their father’s love based on their performance in life. If a father performs well, then a child seems to accept them. If a father does not quite measure up, then they can be less received or approved of by their children or others. My Dad was a preacher and a very angry man. He was a great minister, but due to his own personal upbringing, he would often use excessive punishment on me because of his anger. And as I grew up, I found myself to
be a very frustrated and angry teenager which flowed over into adulthood. However, I truly believe that I loved my Dad. I admired him because of the kind of minister he was, but not because of the kind of Dad he was. I do not know if this article will help anyone or not, but maybe you had a very bitter – sweet childhood. Personally, I am so ministry minded that I find security and relief from my bad experiences growing up by
focusing on the good in my Dad instead of focusing on the beatings. Occasionally, I do wish my Dad had expressed more love, tenderness, and friendship. Yes, at times, the “bitter” comes out when I recall my Dad being a minister, yet taking his anger out on his family. To say I grew up “pal–ing around” with my Dad would not be true. And for some time
in my adult life, I also viewed Father God based on my childhood and especially, the relationship I did not have with my Dad. I find that dealing with anger over growing up without the things you would have liked to have, to some degree is a pointless battle. In many ways, it took me years to understand how loving my Heavenly Father really is. To think that Father God loved the entire human race, including all He created, and then to send His only Son to die just so we could be drawn close to our Father’s heart became an encouragement to me. Even Jesus said, as quoted from the Amplified Bible, “‘YOU SHALL [unselfishly] LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:31) In this case, my Dad would be my neighbor and Jesus tells us to “unselfishly” love our neighbor, just as we would love ourselves. And because of some things in my childhood, it became hard to love myself, even though children who are abused are not at fault. But somehow the devil, working through overbearing adults, can make children feel guilty about their lives. In some studied cases of Christian Phycology, children can carry quilt, producing a
low–self-esteem long into their own adult lives. The only remedy for the negative experiences which came at any point in your life will always be to go on a search to understand how much Father God loves you. To say that the pain does not matter would be a lie. But once again, understanding God’s loves for you can erase the pain, even if the memory is carried for a lifetime. The Apostle Paul said in Romans 12:9 (AMPC) “[Let your] love be sincere (a real thing); hate what is evil [loathe all ungodliness, turn in horror from wickedness], but hold fast to that which is good.” I think Paul was simply telling us to push away what is evil because, in time, the light of God’s love will cause those things that are of the darkness, to vanish out of your life. But you can find out what is real and good, and then cling to it. Yes, I had my issues with my Dad even as an adult and a minister of many years. But something was instilled in me at an early age from the Word of God. I had heard someone preach or quote Ephesians 6:23 which says, “2 Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: 3 “that it may be well with you and you may live
long on the earth.” Well, even thinking like a child, I certainly wanted to live long, and I truly believe that if I honored my earthly Dad, all would be well with my soul. What I mean is that I would constantly experience the Peace of Jesus in my life. And the opening scripture in this article told us to “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.” Now, I have seen many things not work in various people's lives as their children got older. But this promise in the book of Proverbs holds some wise counsel about many things. One of them is raising children. So, if your Dad was not that great to you in your upbringing, just look to the good things that were instilled in you and focus on them. If you share Jesus with your children in the best way you know how, and then as they become adults the stray from the path of God’s Word, you must believe that they will one day return to that which has been placed in their heart. I do not have all of the answers, but I can tell you that I have been there. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “5Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And
He shall direct {or make smooth or straight} your paths.� And while it is true that earthly fathers are not perfect, but your heavenly Father is and He invites you to Trust Him with all of your heart today.
The Son of God, Jesus Christ, through His sacrifice, has perfected you within Himself and the perfection of Jesus is working in you, while your childhood experiences are being worked OUT of you.
Focus your attention more on good things and less on the bad experiences you have had. And above all, focus on how much your heavenly Father loves you, no matter who did what to you in this life. ‌Think about it!
The Fatherless
by: Genice Fulton
this month’s article, I am By:InGenice Fulton speaking to those who feel as if they are fatherless. Those of you who feel negatively toward the whole concept of, “Father’s Day”, and wish the whole day would just disappear. Perhaps, you have felt rejected by your dad; or, for one reason or another your dad has been an absentee father. I can relate. My parents divorced when I was a baby. My mother was killed in a car wreck shortly thereafter. Growing up, I was told a man by the name of,
“John” was my dad. In order to protect his privacy and for purposes for this article, his name has been changed. John was a “career criminal”, meaning he was in and out of prison all my life. I met John when I was nineteen years old. For a little over a year, we attempted to build a relationship but our attempts were extremely unfruitful and bordered on toxic. One day, John (full of anger and disgust) looked at me and said, “I am not your dad.” He went on a rant accusing a member of my mother’s family of being my biological father suggesting an incestuous relationship. I believe this to be a vicious lie.
Under normal circumstances, John’s comments might have emotionally scarred me for the rest of my life. But thankfully at that time, I had already been introduced to my Heavenly Father! (1 Peter 2:9, 1 John 3:1, 2 Corinthians 5:17, John 1:12, Psalm 139:14, Mark 5:34, Matthew 5:9)
If you feel like you are fatherless, I have life changing news for you! (John 10:10) All born again believers in Christ Jesus are not fatherless! (Romans 10:9) You are chosen! You are a royalty! You are God’s own possession! (1 Peter 2:9) And you are loved with His unconditional and unfailing love! (Psalm 86:5, Psalm 52:8) All you have to do is, believe it and walk in it! If you are a mother raising a child who has been rejected by their father, I challenge
you today to teach that child they have a Heavenly father who will never reject them! Please educate them how to learn good judgement by taking His Words to heart! (Proverbs 4:1-27) Father, I come to you in the name of Your Precious Son, Jesus! I thank You for calling me out of darkness and into Your marvelous light! I thank you for every person reading this who has been rejected by and/or grown up without a father. Thank You for being our perfect Father! Thank You for keeping us and guiding us in Your Ways! Thank You for empowering
us to know width, length, height, and depth of Your love! Thank You for creating in us a clean heart and renewing a right spirit within us! And thank You for recreating us! We will never forget what You teach us. Thank You for showing us how to find understanding so that our hearts can be overfilled with joy! And thank You for enlightening us to the fact that no matter who may reject us on earth, You have never and You will never leave or forsake us! We love you Lord, we honor, praise, and will give you glory all the days of our lives!
Let me ask you two questions… How did Jesus forgive sins and heal the sick before He died on the cross? What right did He have to do that? Let’s see how sickness and disease entered the world… Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: Sin brought sickness as the agent of death. Once sickness reaches the point where nature cannot remove it, it is sure to produce death unless removed by the Power of God! Sickness became the “curse of the Law” Deuteronomy 28:58-61 If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, The Lord Thy God; Then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and Bore sicknesses, and of long continuance. Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee. Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in The Book of this Law, them will the Lord bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed.
Aaron made Atonement for sin and stopped a plague Numbers 16:46-50 And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from the Lord; the plague is begun. And Aaron took as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the congregation; and, behold, the plague was begun among the people: and he put on incense, and made an atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed. Now they that died in the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred, beside them that died about the matter of Korah. And Aaron returned unto Moses unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: and the plague was stayed. Moses made an Atonement Numbers 21:9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. The Lord gave to us Covenant Blessings Psalms 103:3 Who forgives all thine iniquities; who heals all thy diseases Isaiah spoke concerning the Messiah and the Atonement He would make Isaiah 53:4,5 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. The New Testament starts to speak of Jesus Matthew 8:17 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses John 3: 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: Galatians 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree: Colossians 1:14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Jesus made an Atonement Romans 5:11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. Hebrews 9:12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
Hebrews 9:15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. So we can see that Jesus was a Priest of God and He made Atonement for our sins and sicknesses on the Cross. He believed in the power of the cross before he was crucified and we believe in it afterwards. He looked forward towards the cross‌ We look back at the cross‌
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by: Pastor Bill Hackworth
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Here we are already into June??? This year is flying by, as we enter the month of June, let me be the first to say Happy Father’s Day! Especially to my very own dad, who not only loved me unconditionally but taught me how to be a dad. Thank you, Dad, Love you and hope you have a very special Father’s day this year. What an exciting time we are living in, where the nature of God is being revealed like
never before. My understanding of His heart and His character has shifted radically over the last 20 years. At one time in my life, I saw God as a deity who was continually disappointed in me, who didn’t really care about me, or my life, cause I couldn’t seem to get it all together. But a radical shift took place, where I stopped viewing God as just God, and I began to understand that He was my Father. That His ultimate intention was always
to have children, children who would be royalty, that would reveal their Heavenly Father on Earth. The writer of Hebrews writes
in Hebrews 3:5-6, “And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.” It says, “Moses was faithful as a servant, but Christ as a Son, which you are if you hold fast to the confidence.” What a revelation, we are not servants of God, but Sons of God. Sons who have an inheritance, whose Father gave us His whole Kingdom! Jesus immediately after being baptized in the Jordan goes to the wilderness to be tempted. The devil’s first temptation to Jesus was, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones to become bread." I feel the stones were symbolic of the Law, and the devil was saying, turn this selfperformance system of the Law into life. Jesus responded with, “Man shall
not live by bread alone, but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." The thing we miss in this context is that Jesus had just been baptized in the Jordan, and the Father spoke from Heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Jesus basically said, "Apparently you didn’t just hear my Papa, He called me His Son, in whom He is well pleased." The devil just tempted Jesus the very same way he deceived Eve and brought Adam into disobedience. Adam was the first person to suffer from identity theft. It's the affirmation of a Father that equips the Son. For so long religion has made us orphans, serving God to gain affirmation, but there is an awakening happening all over the globe. An awakening to our Son-ship, to our inheritance, to a Father that chose us, who says that your name is written in the palm of my hand, that you are the apple of my eye. A Father who says, “your sins and lawless deeds, I will remember no more." Who invites us to approach His throne called grace boldly. And it is in this place of acceptance, that we are empowered, to be more than conquerors, to reign in this life, to transformed culture by experiencing this great love.
The question is, how do we awaken the prodigals to come out of the pig pen and celebrate in their Fathers house? I believe the most powerful and effective tool the sons have, is the power of influence. We have for too long shouted, screamed, condemned, and judged people for not living according to biblical standards, for not believing the message, only to have them pull away from God, the church, and Christianity all together. Bringing the prodigals home requires the demonstration of the love and grace of our Savior. One of my favorite passages in the whole Bible is John 13:3-5. 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, 4 rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. 5 After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. This scripture hit me right in the heart, Jesus knowing that all things were given into His hands, where He came from
and where He was going, all things were created by Him and for Him, got up and washed the disciple’s feet. Jesus the King of Kings, and the Servant of Servants did exactly what His Father would do. I believe this is the answer to bringing the prodigals home. A generation knowing who they are, who their Father is, serving radically and influencing their workplace, their schools, every sector of society, by girding themselves and revealing the Father, the nature of the Father, the character of the Father, and most importantly the heart of the Father. Moses
asked, “show me your glory," and the Father responded with, “I will show you my goodness." It’s the goodness of God that led men to repentance. Finally, there is power in choice; I have the power to choose to forgive, the power to choose to love, etc. God chose us, He removed every obstacle, called us sons, and invited us into this glorious relationship we have with Him. The only thing required of us is to respond to His choice. As the song by Chris Tomlin says, He is a Good, Good Father. He really is
better than we think, so we have to change the way we think. Ephesians 1:4-6 NKJV 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
We are ready to start World Bible School International Training Center. Now we need the building. Below is a picture of a model for similarity. Please pray and consider giving to help us get this building so we can start this WORLD-WIDE CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY by January 2018. God has put this in our hearts, and we know it is the will of God, but something like this cannot be done without finances. We already have instructors ready to go!
How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. Acts 10:38 Whenever we hear of the goodness of God, then our minds are easily caught up into the heavens thinking about what the heavens have for us, or much more than that, what we have received from God and we are very grateful for Him. However, it is very rare in our natural situation for people to see the goodness of God penetrating or flowing from themselves to the world as a first thought that comes into their minds
when the subject is been raised. In Jeremiah, this is how the nature of such a person is regarded by the Lord. “22 For My people are foolish, they have not known Me. They are silly children, and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, But to do good they have no knowledge. 23 I beheld the earth, and indeed it was without form, and void; And the heavens, they had no light.� Jeremiah 4:22-23 One thing the enemy cannot take away from God or His faithful children is the virtue called goodness. He gives rain to the rich and the poor, the wicked and the righteous
at the same time without any restrictions. However, the wicked man, as wicked as he is, will complain about the rain and blame God for the rain; meanwhile, he has his farmlands being affected by the rains.
The righteous will still praise God even though he does not have those farm lands as the wicked does, but due since the farmlands of the wicked has produced enough; much will be on the market for the righteous man to buy at a lesser price to feed his household and his neighborhood. Whenever I hear about people from the scientific world speaking blasphemies against our God, I smile. When you have a personal contact with the atheists, it is almost the same. One thing I always tell them is that whether you believe it or not, Christ has died for the sins of the world. Reinhard Bonnke happened to encounter one atheist in a contest and just before the show, he preached the gospel to him having his name written in the book of Life. “Evangelist, you Christians say that there is power in the name of Jesus. I don’t believe that” the Atheist said. Why don’t you believe that, Reinhard asked? The atheist asked, “You preach that in about two thousand years ago the blood of Jesus was poured out to take away the sins of the world, right?
So why is it that from that time until now the rate of crime has increased and not decreased if there is power in His blood?” Then Reinhard told him, “That is a brilliant question but I will answer you in this way. Do you know something?” He said “no, until you tell me.” And Reinhard said, “There is enough soap in the world today but people are still dirty. Do you know how soap can make one clean?” “If someone works in a soap factory, that does not make him clean. If someone sleeps right beside the boxes of packed soaps, it does not make them clean either. If people want to be clean, then they would have to stretch their hands and pick up the soaps for themselves and apply water to the soap and put it on their bodies, and they will be clean. It is the same with the blood of Jesus. Until you apply it you cannot experience the impact of it. Repent and believe the Gospel, Jesus saves!”
Then the Atheist said, “Do you know something? I could sense something penetrating from you as you spoke to me and do you know what I think?” “I think that you are professional more than all the other Evangelists I have spoken to about this subject.” Then Mr. Bonnke said, “No, I am not a professional, but instead, I am a living testimony that there is power in the blood of Jesus Christ.” Right after that conversation, the atheist was pricked in his heart and was led to receive Christ by Reinhard. One thing that flows through my mind, especially about people who challenge the works of God, is ignorance. The rain falls on each one of us, whether we appreciate it or not. God would not say to this atheist that because you have said that there is no power in My blood, I will not allow you to be impacted by it. No! One virtue of God that is scarcely seen in the church today is, The Goodness of God.” Almost everyone wants to do good to people who say nice and pleasant things to them, but not to those who accuse them; those who persecute them falsely, and finally, those who despitefully use them.
As long as someone is not in agreement with them, then the person is an enemy. But what the bible actually teaches us from Genesis to Revelation, is very different. Think about this; before the creation of the world, the earth was without form and void; with darkness upon the face of the deep. But still the goodness of God (the Spirit of God to be precise), was moving upon the surface of the waters. This also represents the nations without the knowledge of the goodness of God, foolish and sottish (or silly) with no understanding, as stated in Jeremiah 4:22. In John 5, after Jesus healed the man who was infirmed with a strange sickness for about thirty-eight years, we had people who were so courageous that came to Jesus to warn Him about the good thing that He did! The same thing happened after Peter and John had miraculously healed the man at the beautiful gate. The authorities started questioning them about the kind of power they applied; of which they answered them, “by faith in the name of Jesus.” While Jesus and His disciples are interested in changing evil situations to favorable ones for the Glory of God, the
Pharisees were not interested in the name that was mentioned. Neither were they mindful of the good works that God was doing through men like themselves, but rather about keeping their ‘doctrines.’ They were all distressed and grown with an exceeding great anger because in their minds, the name of Jesus was gaining more fame than themselves. This is one thing I am seeing for the church in the next coming centuries. Especially when the name of Jesus is not the heart and the major focus of our messages, then it will be very easy for the enemy to set that context between brethren who are supposed to dwell in unity, or in one accord to what the gospel of Acts teaches us to enjoy the good and sweet pleasantness of the anointing flowing from generations to generations to all that are afar off even with those that the Lord our God shall call. In a situation like this, most of the people of the church will be persecuting Jesus Christ Himself, which is the hardest thing to do in the great Kingdom of God. As He told Saul on the road to Damascus, ‘it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.’ That is when selfishness begins to reign rather than self denial. The goodness of
God is one great virtue that can turn a selfish situation into a selfless one. ‘But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.’ ‘Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. Ye have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.’ Matthew 5:39-48.
Question 1. What is the difference between good carbohydrates and bad carbohydrates? Answer. Firstly, all carbohydrates are not the same. Some of them are good source of
carbohydrates and come are bad source of carbohydrates. Let me explain the difference between the two in a tabular form.
Question 2. How many egg whites in a day are safe? Answer. It depends if you are doing beginner, intermediate or advanced level workout. For a beginner or intermediate level workout, I would recommend six egg whites at a time and one serving is sufficient. But for advanced level workout, you should consume 10 to 12 egg whites and three to four servings in a day. If you don’t take whey protein or nonvegetarian protein, you may take four servings in a day. Avoid eating yolk; it has saturated fats, high calories and bad cholesterol. One scoop of whey protein is equals to six egg whites protein. Question 3. What does the biggest gym mistake people do? Answer] Not all gym goers have a symmetric body. Most of us train muscle groups but we often ignore the biggest muscle group. We mostly focus on the mirror body i.e. the body part we see in the mirror which is Chest and Biceps. We often neglect our back, hamstrings, quads, glutes, and shoulders. If you are not training in symmetry then your body will not
group in symmetry. Get rid of your comfort zone and train every muscle group. If you have any weak muscle, train it on Monday or Day 1. Question 4. Does workout effect our height growth? Answer. This is the question that you will often keep hearing if you are a teenager. It’s the teenage in which your height is going to increase. The first thing I would like to say is that height is genetics and our height increases from our spine. Back, triceps, abdominals, chest, triceps are in no way related to your height growth. If you lift heavy weight above your shoulders, then this act is going to compress your spine and it may not allow your height to increase further. Back, glutes, hamstrings, biceps and triceps can be trained heavy. But for exercise like Dumbbell press and Barbell press over the shoulder, use medium or light weight in order to not to compress your spine. Whenever you lift weights over your shoulder your spine, muscles and joints are under stress. Moreover, if you want to do squats, use dumbbells instead of barbells because dumbbells will be below your spine. Our height increases in age group of 15 to 21 years. Above 21 years, 99% of our height growth is already done. Rope skipping and Pull ups are good exercises to be done during your teenage days in order to achieve a good height. This is Dewanshu Ahlawat, a Certified Nutritionist with 17 other certifications. If you have any query regarding your health and nutrition. Please feel free to contact me at dewanshuahlawat@gmail.com or you may even ring me at +919493289503.I express my word of thanks to the Editor in Chief Mrs. Faye G Hanshew for publishing my article in her esteemed magazine. Keep reading this wonderful magazine and do read my next article on Nutrition in the coming months. Please take care and stay fit.
As I have travelled to many countries and visited many Churches. I have discovered that many born-again believers have a problem relating to the Holy Spirit. Firstly, we need to recognise and acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is God. He is as much God as God the Father and as much God as Jesus Christ the Son. He is co-equal and co-eternal with Father and Son. He is definitely not an it, or and influence or just a source of power. The Holy Spirit is a real person, he has feelings, you can talk to him and he will talk to you, you can greave. He is God and he lives in every born-again believer. Jesus rose from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit.
After Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared to his disciples for 40 days. Then as they were gathered together with him, He was taken up into Heaven before their eyes in a cloud. However, before he left them Jesus gave His believers a very special promise. John 14 v 16-18 I will ask the Father, and he will give you another (Comforter – Counsellor – advocate) to be with you forever – the Spirit of Truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away the Counsellor will not come to you: but if I go I will send him to you. Jesus has not left us alone in this world. He has sent us the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is vital that we
develop an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God’s gift to very born-again believer. When a person believes in Jesus Christ and accepts Him as their Lord and Saviour the Holy Spirit comes to live in the new born-again believer and imparts spiritual life. Acts 2 v 38-39 Peter replied, Repent and be baptised every
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are a far off – for all whom the Lord will call. The Holy Spirit desires to work in the believer’s life. He comes to dwell within to minister to you personally. He will testify of your relationship with Father God. Read Romans 8 v 16 For His Spirit joins with our spirit to confirm that we are God’s children. As we obey God’s commandments and remain in fellowship with him. We will know that he lives in us. The Holy Spirit is also a wonderful teacher. John 14 v 26, But when the Father sends the Advocate – Counsellor – Comforter – Para cleat as my representative, that is the Holy Spirit – he will TEACH you everything I have told you. The Holy Spirit is our GUIDE. Romans 8 v 14 For all who are lead by the Spirit of God are children of God. How wonderful to know the Leadership of the Holy Spirit – the all wise – all seeing God who knows everything and knows everyone. He is the one who never makes a mistake or gives us wrong advice or wrong direction. He helps us live a life that is
pleasing to God. Galatians 5 v 16-17-18 So I say let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite the Spirit wants. The Spirit gives us desires that are opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. How can we lead a life pleasing to God without the help of the Holy Spirit? The simple answer is that it is impossible without His help. It is important to be listening to the still small voice of the Spirit, who will lead you aright if we obey his prompting. There are times we do not know what to pray or how to pray. Romans 8 v 26-27 And the Holy Spirit HELPS us in our weakness. For example, we do not know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays through us with groaning’s that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts, knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. What a joy and an honour to experience the Holy Spirit praying through us and achieving God’s will in the situation.
The Holy Spirit imparts LIFE to our bodies Romans 10 v 11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead he will give LIFE (Healing) to your mortal bodies by the same Spirit living within you. Despite what some people say Jesus Christ is still Healing sick bodies, still imparting His Devine Life and Healing into our bodies. If you are sick in body Trust Jesus by Faith and he will Heal you. Exodus 15 v 26 For I am the Lord Who Heals you. 1 Peter 2 v 24 By His stripes (wounds) you are Healed. As well as God giving us the Holy Spirit to dwell in every believer, He wants to FILL and BAPTISE every believer with the Holy Spirit to Empower us for service and to Glorify God in the world. The Holy Spirit gives us POWER and BOLDNESS to WITNESS. Acts 1 v 8 But you will receive Power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses telling people about me everywhere in Jerusalem – (Home)throughout Judea – (Next Area) in Samaria – (The people that you find difficult to work with) – and to the ends of the earth. I can assure you from personal experience that without The Holy Spirit this is impossible.
The Holy Spirit introduces the SUPERNATURAL REALM IN OUR LIVES. Acts 2 v 4 And everyone present were filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages as the Holy Spirit gave them ability. NTL. Acts 10 v 46 For they heard them speaking in other tongues and praising God. Acts 19 v 6 Then when Paul laid his hands on them the Holy Spirit came on them and they spoke in other tongues and prophesied. The Holy Spirit desires to lead us in the Supernatural Natural Realm. The Holy Spirit is the one who brings FRESH REVELATION from the
Word of God. John 16 v 1315 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will GUIDE you into ALL TRUTH, he will not speak of his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you the future. He will bring me Glory by telling you whatever he receives from me. All that belongs to the Father is mine, this is why I said The Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me. What a privilege and honour to receive from the Holy Spirit everything that Father God and Jesus have decided in the throne room of Heaven. 1 Corinthians 2 v 9-10 That is what the Scriptures mean
when they say, No eye has seen – No ear has heard – and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him. But it was to us that God revealed these things by His Spirit. For His Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. NLT As you will now realise from reading the above how VITALLY IMPORTANT for every believer to be BAPTISED and have that INTIMATE REALATIONSHIP with the HOLY SPIRIT. If this relationship is as God intended it to be what an exciting LIFE in JESUS results.
by: Dr. Dan L. Corse
When it comes to our embracing Christ as Savior, all of us have unique stories to tell. Yet, among them all there is a common thread. That thread is the account of God’s greatest creation, us, due to sin, experiencing alienation from God and finding ourselves in need of a redeemer. That is the broader picture, the one that applies to all of mankind. However, within that broader picture each of us has his or her own story to tell. This is my story. Born in a small town to a God-loving mother and an alcoholic father, the spiritual dichotomy of life was apparent from my earliest recollections. Growing up,
there were no grey areas related to the spiritual divide between my parents. Mom loved everything about being a Christian mother: praying, reading her Bible, teaching the Bible, fellowship with other Christians, singing hymns and praises to God, hearing God-inspired messages from ministers, loving her husband as best she knew how, and, last, but certainly not least to Mom, loving my older brother and I. Dad, on the other hand, on the surface, was all about swearing, temper tantrums and drunken stupors. Yet, under his troubled surface, Dad was a sensitive, caring, and very intelligent man. However, his alienation from
God made it impossible for him to experience the blessings that come by living in the center of God’s will. One day, thankfully, his alienation from God would come to an end. We moved from our small town to a suburb of St. Louis when I was three. There, Mom became a devoted
member of a local church. It was in that church that my earliest recollections of church life began. In my interactions with our Pastor, Kenneth Couch, it became apparent that something was different about him. Little did I know then that the something different was the calling of God upon his life. Around him I always felt loved and accepted. In turn, when it came to God, I always felt loved and accepted by Him. But that, tragically for me, changed. Pastor Couch’s days at our church came to an end. Replacing him was a man who seemed to be, at least to me, all about professionalism but not about the most endearing trait of a successful pastor, a love for the flock. Our once loving and caring church, though growing quickly, for the most part in my eyes, transformed into a social club. And, for me, the atmosphere of that social club was unappealing. Thus, as I entered my teen years, the once-loving bonds that had endeared me to the church were dissolving. Add that to the siren calls of sin that so many teenagers face, and my life was in crisis. Yet, there was another voice calling me, the voice of the Holy Spirit, gently urging me to surrender my life to our blessed Savior,
Jesus Christ. However, at that time I was less interested in Jesus being Lord of my life than I was my taking full control. So, with no conscious animosity toward God and growing ambivalence toward my church, I, much to my Mom’s consternation, stopped going to church. Adrift from the foundation that had been a loving and caring church and in need of the spiritual transformation that comes by embracing Christ as Savior, it did not take long for me to yield to the same siren voices that had called my Dad and taken control of his life long ago. At first, drinking and getting drunk was all about having fun. Along with my teen friends, we drank and laughed and, in general, had jovial times. Little did I know then that the pleasures of sin are but for a season. Had I been told that then, I am not sure I would have listened, for I was too busy enjoying its pleasures. Recollections of my old church had no bearing on what I did, for my recent memories of church did not hint at the fulfilment of a life spent in fellowship with God. And, so I drank more and more and partied more and more and added other vices to the list of sins in which I was participating. Any thoughts
about God less and less occupied my time, though questions about the meaning of life more and more filled my thinking. Thus, related to my views of God, the rejection of my belief in God by a friend and his acquaintance was all it took for me to don the cap of atheist as well. After all, I did not have a relationship with God and was completely adrift from the Christian teachings of my youth, so why should I lose friends over a God with whom I had no relationship. Little then did I know the magnitude of my foolishness or the spiritual darkness that would result by my rejecting a belief in God. But God had not rejected me. He was patiently and lovingly waiting for the effects of sin in life to lose their pleasure. As I said, getting wasted, at first, was all about having fun. However, over time I began to see the same controlling hand present in my Dad’s life taking control in mine. (My Dad, thankfully, had by this time quit drinking and begun attending church with my Mom, where he came to know Christ as Savior.) When I drank, it was no longer merely about having fun, but about each time achieving that point where I was about to pass out, and then heading off to sleep
it off, not so I could put such behaviors behind me, but so I could begin anew another day. Though I did not imbibe everyday drinking, more correctly, getting obliterated, was becoming as much a part of my life as eating and sleeping and breathing. Gradually, I was becoming what my father and his father before him had become, an alcoholic. Oh, I fought against this addiction, for I did not like it becoming more and more the master of my life. Encounters with the police related to my drinking added to the misery, as did rejection by others due to my drinking. But I did not know how to stop. How I longed for freedom from this growing addiction, but I saw no pathway to freedom. Related to a pathway to freedom, it was during this time that I rejected the atheism I had embraced for some time and chose agnosticism, as I knew I had
no proof there was no God. Doing so did not immediately result in my embracing Christ as Savior, but it did give the Holy Spirit an opening in my life. Unfettered by the spiritual darkness produced by atheistic thinking, I became open to the possibility that there was a God. Given that opportunity, the Holy Spirit lovingly and patiently began to reveal to me that there were indeed spiritual powers at work in the world about me. Initially, I did not know what to call these powers. As far as I knew they might be named Moe and Larry (as I have jokingly said on occasion since then), but this I did know, one of them hated me and the other One loved me. Soon, I would learn, or more correctly, relearn, their identities. My aunt died in September of 1978. As I was asked to be a pall-bearer at her funeral, God used this opportunity to
reveal to me the identity of the One who loved me. Sitting in the audience at the funeral, Pastor Brown, in addition to performing other duties associated with funerals, shared the gospel. There I was, hearing the same message I had heard hundreds of times as a child, realizing what a poor lord of my life I truly was. Increasingly bound by an addiction to alcohol and lacking the understanding of purpose that only comes from a living and vital relationship with Jesus Christ, unlike in my teen years, I was fully ready to surrender. That surrender exemplified the heart of this son being lovingly brought back to our heavenly Father. That surrender opened the door to my deliverance from alcoholism. That surrender answered my questions about the meaning of life and gave me purpose. That surrender was the best decision I ever made.
DAD I “Hello? This is David.” Mom was smart to share only positive things about my father. He’d left her, pregnant with my sister, when I was about two. One of the first decisions I made after coming to know Jesus was to find him. “Well David, how are ya? Bla, bla, bla…. pause” “This is your son, David.” In a very different voice I heard, “Well, David, how are you?” We met face to face not long after the phone conversation. Joshua Frank Livengood and I lost contact again. In the 90s, a parent of one of the students in my school, a missing persons investigator, offered to find him and did. This time we stayed in contact.
There was one burning question in my mind. No, it wasn’t, “Where were you?” You can guess the question by his reply. Dad looked me right in the eye and said, “The Bible says, ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life’. And David, that’s what I believe!” That was good enough for me!
DAD II “Get down to that school and change that kid’s name!” he bellowed. I was about 7 ½ when William Stephen Kachele entered our lives. He was angry that Mom was getting school mail addressed to Mrs. Livengood. He stayed angry. He was angry all the time. He was loud and scary. He never physically hurt us until one day, in a rage, accidentally hurt Mom. I was about 14. I wanted to kill him. But when I got saved at age 26, my feelings changed. I began praying for him to get saved. Dad had always abused alcohol, but when he started cutting cocaine at home, Mom got scared. After 30 years, with faithfulness to
him and to Christ, she divorced him. Dad was 60. He went to live with a cousin of his who had come to know Jesus. Shortly afterwards, he got saved. We connected, really connected, for the first time. Later, still struggling with his flesh, Dad told me, “David, when I walked down that aisle, I felt the Spirit of Christ enter me, and nothing can ever change that!” He asked me (Me!) to baptize him. I was fully reconciled to both of them. My DadS are in heaven now! That’s one reason that I wake up every day grateful, thinking, “ONLY GOD COULD PULL THIS OFF!” HAPPY FATHER’S DAY GENTLEMEN! YOU LADIES AND KIDS, YOU HAVE A BLESSED DAY TOO!
When Jesus came, He brought a whole new perspective of Hashem, the Creator. He introduced Him as Father. Of course, the Sadducees and Pharisees freaked out about that. It really messed up their theology. Especially the fact that a human being called Himself the Son of that heavenly Father! Oh, my – that made Him God’s offspring! So, they tossed the word blasphemy around a lot. But the reason Jesus introduced the Father to us was because it had long been His heart to turn the hearts of the sons back to the Father. When Adam blew it royally in the garden it wasn’t only Adam that lost a wonderful relationship, but the Father did as well. The Father
longed for fellowship and that’s why Adam and Eve were created. Knowing, though, that true fellowship can’t be legalized and mechanized, God gave them choices. Way before Joshua, God was saying to Adam and Eve, “Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.” Joshua said, “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” But Adam didn’t. And that’s why the hearts had to be turned back. God was so patient. He waited and worked for millennia for that very purpose. And now, we are the people who are living in the days of that return to the heart of the Father. We are His children. As 1 John 3:1 says, “See what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be
called the sons of God!” We have access into amazing love! When my children were growing up their earthly father was off on his own a lot. He wasn’t really active in their growing up years. One day I told a friend, “I am mother and father both.” And the Holy Spirit arrested me on the spot. I remember where I was standing in my kitchen
when He said, “You are not their father. You are their mother. I am their Father.” At some point – I don’t remember if it was immediately or as I meditated on what He said – I replied, “Then Lord, I need you to do some things that fathers do. I need You to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I need You to teach them things about life that I can’t. I need You to fill the father-gaps that a mother can’t fill!” Years went by. One day my high school-age son came home with his friends from a Christian youth event that lasted 2 or 3 days. The Pastor of our local church asked him to give a testimony. He took the podium and declared the need to know and serve God. I sat back in my seat and listened to him as he spoke for about 5 minutes. Overwhelmed, I said to the Lord, “Lord, You did it. You’ve been His Father! You did what You commanded earthly fathers to do. You have done Your own word and You have raised them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord!” I know that not everyone has good memories of their own earthly fathers. And God is here to turn that around for you. In that case, those men
are not true examples of what our heavenly Father truly is like. That’s why it’s so important to get to know the Father that Jesus showed us. As I said above, the Father’s love is great for us and He longs for us to bask in it. When we nurture that relationship, it blesses us but it brings such joy to the Father’s heart as well. My own Dad was just a typical father from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. He worked to support his family of 6. He had values and struggles and fears. One thing my brothers and I know for a fact: he loved us. I was the only girl out of 4 children and I confess I might have been a bit favored. That is until I was almost old enough to leave home. Then Dad became much stricter, and much more given to arguments with me. I did argue with him but mostly I was baffled. This was a reversal of the Dad I’d known up to that point. It was years later, after I was born-again, that I asked the Lord about those times. I asked Him Why Dad was “on my case” all the time, suddenly. God said, “Because he was afraid.” And I saw it. His little girl had grown up and was going out into a big and scary world and he might not be able to protect her out there. The light-bulbs came on! That
changed my whole attitude toward him which, in turn, changed our relationship. When I would take my kids to Mom and Dad’s to visit I never knocked on the front door. I would open it and call out, “Hello!” Mom would be in the kitchen, typically, and Dad in his recliner (always!). When I called out, “Hello,” I would hear the recliner close pretty fast. I’d hear the thump-thump noise that a recliner makes when the footrest is put down. And Dad would come down the hallway quickly and give me a big hug. Mom would come around the corner from the kitchen and do the same. One day back at my home church during worship I was just worshiping God and that’s when I heard it: I heard the sound of a recliner folding up! It surprised me! Does that mean I’ve come to Dad’s and He’s running excitedly to meet me? I knew then that’s exactly what it meant! There’s a worship song that says, “So arise from Your rest and be blessed by our praise as we glory in Your embrace.” I realized that when I come to praise Him and worship Him I’ve come to His dwelling place and He eagerly meets me when I come. And not only to bless me, but because He’s as longing to be with me as I am
with Him. It’s why I exist! I was born of love. I was conceived in love. There’s a Jennie-size space in God that only I can fill. There’s a yousize space in God that only you can fill. His heart truly longs for that fellowship with you. Do you remember that song by Larnelle Harris, “I Miss My Time with You?” Here are some of the lyrics: “I miss my time with you, those moments together. I need to be with you each day and it hurts me when you say you’re too busy. Busy trying to serve me. But how can you serve me when your spirit’s empty? There’s
a longing in my heart, wanting more than just a part of you. It’s true… I miss my time with you.” There is something so beautiful about having our hearts turned to the Father. Then we are also in-tune with the Father. And then our earthly relationships can come into place. If your relationship with your earthly father has not been what it should be, I pray that you take some time to seek the Lord and come to know that Fatherly relationship from above. I pray that it heals your heart, to not only close wounds but soften scars and cause them to completely diminish. I pray that new
sounds of welcoming come to your ears and you know the footsteps of the Father as He runs to meet you at the door. Father, I pray for my friends, Lord. That by Your Holy Spirit You reveal this about Yourself this Father’s Day. I thank You that you are not only the Lord of lords and King of kings but Father of fathers. You train young men to be fathers of excellence. Lord, I know that in the days to come, in the sweeping revival that we shall soon step into, fathers will take their places as godly influences by example. And the hearts of sons and daughters will be turned to the fathers and the hearts of fathers will be turned to the sons and daughters.
Jeremiah 9:23 Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches. But let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I Am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteous- ness in the Earth: for in these things I delight saith the Lord. In these verses, God is inviting us to get to know Him!! What an invitation!! What a real blessing, knowing God the Father! Our number One priority should be to know our heavenly Father! Time spent getting to know Him is time well spent!
There are many misconceptions about God out there, not only in the world but in the church world as well. Let me say something I heard the Spirit of the Lord say one day! He said, “Your future is as bright as your conception of God!” Many people have the idea that God is sitting on His throne looking down on Earth thinking of ways to keep people out of Heaven, and how to make and keep them sick, and causing them to lie down, so they will look up. How to keep them from having anything but the bare minimum! But nothing could be farther from the truth! Jesus said in John 8:31-32, “If you continue in My Word, then are you my disciples
indeed; and you shall know the Truth, and the truth shall make you free!!” So if we want to know the truth about God, we will find it in the Word! First of all, let’s look at Psalms 145:8-9 and get a true picture of God. “The Lord is
gracious (disposed to show favors) full of compassion (to love tenderly, to pity, to show mercy, to be full of eager yearning) slow to anger, and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works!” This is a Word picture of our heavenly Father! John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God!” Hallelujah! I would like to look at one aspect of the Word Compassion. It means to be full of eager yearning. You may ask, “What does that have to do with compassion?” It simply means that He is full of eager yearning to fulfill all of His Great and Precious Promises to His faithful children, and to this lost and dyeing world! For instance, when you buy your child a Christmas gift in October and you have to wait for Christmas to give it to him! Full of eager yearning is the way you feel between October and December 25!! His benevolent heart is looking for ways to get His provided blessings to His children! If you really want to get an accurate picture of God, all you have to do is take the hand of Jesus and walk with
Him through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John! Jesus said in John 14:7, “If you had known me you would have known my Father also.” In John 10:30 He said, “My father and I are ONE!!!” So, let’s have a look at Jesus in a few scriptures and learn of our Father! In Mark 1:40: “There came a leper to Him (Jesus), beseeching Him and kneeling down to Him, and saying to Him, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus moved with compassion, put forth His hand, and touched Him, and saith unto him I will be thou clean. and as soon as He had spoken, immediately the Leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed!” Praise the Lord, for He is Good! God is not anything so much as He is Love! In fact, the Word says in 1 John 4:8, “GOD IS LOVE!!!” In the case of this leper, and every other case in the Bible Gods Love was UNCONDITIONAL! It did not matter if this was an outcast of society, or had no money, or did not dress in fine clothes, or what color or gender he was!! God just loved Him and was full of eager yearning to bless him! In Matthew 14:14 we find another instance of the Lords compassion! “And Jesus
went forth and saw a great multitude, and was Moved with compassion toward them, and healed there sick!!” Glory to God! Again, I would like to emphasize that Gods Love was UNCONDITIONAL! If you think about it you know that there was some people in that crowd who had done wrong, sinful things that day! But He loved them just the same! At the same time, you must remember that none of them were born again because the new birth was not available at that time! Jesus had not gone to the cross yet! Sometimes I think that the reason that this kind of love is so hard to grasp is that we have nothing to compare it to! In the English language, we have a limited vocabulary when it comes to Love! We say we love our dog, and that we love ice cream, then we turn around and say we love our wives or husbands! In the Greek language, there were as several words used for Love and they are very helpful in the use of the word. One of the words is Phileo, which is the highest kind of love that man can produce in his own efforts. This word is the reason divorce lawyers are rich! It is based almost entirely on the performance of your mate! As long as dinner is on the table on time,
and my shirts are ironed, and the house is cleaned I will love you! But cross me, and you will see what happens! At the altar, phileo says, “I'll love you to the end!” Six months later it says, "This is the end!” The Greek word for God’s Love is Agape. It is absolutely unconditional! It is not in any way based on your performance, but on the goodness of God! Nothing, not even hell can separate you from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus! This brings us to the greatest act of Love ever known to mankind! It is found in John 3:16 where God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life! Praise God! In this
scripture, God does the unthinkable! He sacrifices His own beloved Son for you and me. I wonder if any of us has plumbed the depths of this Greatest of all Love? Now why did God do this? To see His son beaten beyond recognition? To see Him spat upon, and humiliated, and crowned with thorns? Nailed to an old rugged cross? In Romans 5:8, God commended (proved) His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us!!! Now you know a little more about our wonderful Heavenly Father! When you truly know Him, the struggle for faith is over! The Apostle Paul said, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to
keep what I have committed to Him against that day!” To know Him is to love Him!! God loves you with an everlasting, unconditional love! The Lord said to me one day as I prayed for the sick, I was to tell them that He loved to heal them! Many people have the mistaken idea that we have to Talk Him into the notion of healing them! But you see the truth is that He took those stripes so you could be healed! Healing as well as forgiveness and prosperity have already been provided through Jesus death burial and resurrection! All that God requires of you is to believe, and receive His provisions! Everything that God does for humanity stems from the fact that He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Praise His Name forever!
One summer toward the end of August, my dad invited my sister and me to go salmon fishing with him. He chose that time because usually the end of August is a very good time to go out over the bar and catch salmon while they are still out in the ocean. As the three of us launched out of Warrenton, Oregon, several large trollers and commercial fishing boats were also headed out that early morning. We simply followed in their wake as we headed to the mouth of the Columbia River. That transition from the river to the ocean can be quite treacherous. Many boats and ships have capsized because of the confluence of incoming tides against the river’s current. You cannot be filled with trepidation in your actions. Skill and experience and a knowledge of this specific tidal waters is a must. My dad had been over this bar several times, and I had accompanied him on many of those trips. I felt quite confident in my dad’s nautical skills; however, on this particular day, we
crossed the bar with unusually rough waves. The experience brought a bit of consternation to me, though I kept my thoughts to myself. I simply leaned on the expertise of my dad’s experience in spite of how I felt. We were successful in crossing over those turbulent currents by following in the wake of some of the other crafts, which removed some of the impact of the cross seas. Of importance to the reader would be knowing the fact that we were now out to sea in a 21-foot-long boat! Our craft would have been too small to operate in most conditions, except in absolute calm seas. I had been with my dad before when we experienced a kind of calm condition, only it
was accompanied with fog. Now, I was pondering those times in my mind on this particular fishing excursion. Once we were finally in a place at sea where we could navigate to a place we would expect to catch fish, we were in the bottom of a trough. We could not see in any direction. The crest of the waves were at least 30 feet above us. Quite naturally, I was thinking, this does not look good at all. Even then I said nothing; I held my opinion to myself—all the while feeling very uncomfortable in our predicament. Finally, my dad made one statement: “This does not look good at all.” Definitely. I could not agree more. The decision was made to turn back. Giving up the idea of fishing this day was simple enough, but it was another thing for us to be able to execute that decision. We were facing that same dramatic image from that movie, A Perfect Storm. I could only be totally reliant upon my dad’s nautical skills. He started up what was like traversing a steep watery incline to approach some place on the huge waves to turn about— without being capsized. Just before turning, he throttled back on the engine, and with smooth precision, increased power to come around without powering too much to plummet through the bottom of the valley. With very little difficulty, the boat was turned around, but now we had to face each surging wave with the same assertiveness and direct attentiveness, powering up to the top of the crest and throttling back each time we cleared the top of the wave. This slow motoring went on all the
way back across the high seas until we entered those turbulent currents at the mouth of the Columbia River and then safely back in the main channel of the river. However, I do think that my dad was quite anxious to get both my sister and me safely back to the moorage where the pickup and boat trailer were parked. He was ready to end this encounter with the defiant seas. Once in the river, he started going a little faster, though the water was still choppy with about four- to fivefoot swells. I was sitting in the middle of the boat, watching out over the horizon and saw that we were going to go up over a wave and come back down through the middle of the next wave. When I perceived what was going to happen, my first immediate reaction was to slide up under the bow of the boat. As the waves crashed over the top of our boat, it was completely filled with water. Right away we started using the bilge pump, as well as a couple of plastic buckets to bail water. We even aided the pumping by taking out the plug in the stern as we continued to head back to the dock. My sister and my dad were completely drenched from the deluge of water that the waves had dumped in the boat; however, I never got wet—not even a drop. I had been enveloped by an air pocket bubble that was created as the water went over the bow about the same time that I had slid underneath. We were relieved to be back on land, and that experience taught me a lesson that I have never forgotten. Whatever is not good, whatever is not acceptable, whatever is not perfect is not the Father’s will. In order to establish His Word in our heart, He has given us lessons in life to identify with the truths found in
Scripture. It becomes engrafted in our souls, or as I have already expressed, it is fused one with our spirit. “Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with
meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls� (James 1:21 NKJV).
What if you believed that you did not have to earn the right to be called a son? A good dad will encourage this attitude of sonship. Free of charge. If you have to pay the price to stay in the house, we call those people tenants. Is it the heart of the Father to charge you for this right? Do we have evidence that He wants you to pay up for the privilege of using the family name? "Stay in the house only as long as you do everything right and watch out that you don’t slip or your status is in jeopardy!" Those statements do not sound like an encouraging Dad. But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the authority (power, privilege, right) to become
the children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name. John 1:12 Amplified Bible You welcomed Him but do you acknowledge that He welcomed you first? Do see yourself as the hired help or do you freely walk the house knowing that you are a son? Have you put yourself in bondage to maintaining your status in the house, or do you feel secure in your heritage? Therefore, you are no longer a slave (bond servant) but a son; and if a son, then [it follows that you are] an heir by the aid of God, through Christ. Galatians 4:7 Amp.
Both a servant and a son will serve the will of the Father. Do you act like a child who has full rights and privileges of the house or do you attend to the Father’s will because you feel you have to pay for his approval? If you have this attitude, you might be confused with a renter. You are not. You are an heir to the
Kingdom. You are free to execute the will of the House. It might surprise you to know that the best way to attract a son is to put a clean white robe around him. Cover him in something that lets him know he is smothered in approval. Make him right first. Let the rest go. Don’t worry about all the filth and nasty he was rolling in. Put the robe on anyway. Let’s look at the example of this concept that Jesus gave us in Luke 15 when the prodigal son said, “I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; [just] make me like one of your hired servants." He was prepared to pay. So he got up and came to his [own] father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity and tenderness [for him]; and he ran and embraced him and kissed him [[d]fervently]. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son [I no longer deserve to be recognized as a son of yours]!
The Father didn’t even address the apology. The payment was made, and the idea of the exchange for money was settled. The son was not expected to jump through any performance hoops. The servants went to retrieve the robe of approval. But the father said to his bond servants, bring quickly the best robe (the festive robe of honor) and put it on him; and give him a ring for his hand and sandals for his feet. And bring out that [wheat]fattened calf and kill it; and let us revel and feast and be happy and make merry, because this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found! And they began to revel and feast and make merry. Luke 15:18-24 Amp. Sonship is all about Life, and now your New Life on the inside produces a spirit of sonship. Both sons in Jesus’ story had full rights. One son was against himself, and the other son was against his brother. Neither one agreed with the situation. The Father’s heart was for right standing and Life of BOTH sons. He encouraged true sonship. It takes a FREE Son to show another son the heart of the Father. Jesus was the Free Son. His friends said, “Hey
Son, (Jesus) SHOW us the Father..." and Jesus told them to look at Him. He was the Right Son. He is IN you. You have been made the “RightSon-ness” of the Father. That is His heart. Don’t try to be a son. You are a child of the Most High. What if the sons of God stopped trying to “measure up?” For one, we might not have any negative religious nonsense! No matter how hard you try…if you continue to view yourself as a Servant, you will always fail to measure up to the status of a SON. But doesn’t God need slaves to accomplish His will? A Son will freely serve up the kind favor of His Dad. He is a dispenser of encouragement and hope in the same manner as the Father. Slavery is a poor method to led people into repentance. Love freely paid for it all and Love is your example of the Father’s will in action. Trading money for approval can put you into a vicious cycle of slavery. There is a big difference between trying to be a son and knowing that you own the whole kingdom. Jesus answered them, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, Whoever commits and practices sin is the slave of
sin. Now a slave does not remain in a household permanently (forever); the son [of the house] does remain forever. So if the Son liberates you [makes you free men], then you are really and unquestionably free. John 8:34 Amp. The way out of being a slave is through SONSHIP. There is no need to go back into a spirit of slavery. For [the Spirit which] you have now received [is] not a spirit of slavery to put you once more in bondage to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption [the Spirit producing sonship] in [the bliss of] which we cry, Abba (Father)! Father! The Spirit Himself [thus] testifies together with our own spirit, [assuring us] that we are children of God. And if we are [His] children, then we are [His] heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ [sharing His inheritance with Him]; only we must share His suffering if we are to share His glory. Rom 8:14-17 Amp.
The mindset of being a son is the life of freedom. Jesus answered and said, “I say unto you with absolute certainty that everyone engaging in the distorted mindset of sin is a slave to it!” (Sin is not about things you do or don’t do - sin is missing out on sonship! The sinsystem is governed by the idea of justification by
personal effort, performance, and pretence; which is the typical fruit of the ‘I am-notmindset’ which Peter refers to as the futile ways we inherited from our fathers. 1 Peter 1:18) The difference between the slave and the son is that the slave only works there; for the son, the father’s house is home! With the freedom found in sonship, there is no pretence! (Free indeed! The word, ontoos, indeed is the opposite to what is pretended.) John 8:34-36 Mirror No matter which son you have been acting like, this verse is for you: "And the father said to him, Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours." Luke 15:31 Amp. God sees you as His righteousness in Christ Jesus. The world is longing for that attitude. For [even the whole] creation (all nature) waits expectantly and longs earnestly for God's sons to be made known [waits for the revealing, the disclosing of their sonship]. Rom 8:19 Amp.
GOD SO LOVED YOU!
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If you are not a Christian all you have to do is repent of your sins and invite Jesus into your
Say the prayer below, and mean it from your heart. If you decide to make Jesus Lord of your life, we would LOVE to hear from you.
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I know I am a sinner. I thank you for dying on the cross for me. I confess with my mouth. I believe in my heart that you are the Son of God. I believe you are the Lord and that God raised you from the dead. Please, forgive me of my sins. Wash my heart clean. Come live in my life. Be the Lord of my life. Fill me with your Holy Spirit. Teach me to walk with you and live for you the rest of my life. Thank you for saving me and for giving me the gift of eternal life in Heaven with you. Amen.