Freedom in the Fire

December 30, 2013

Good Morning My Beloved Ones,

    I pray that you fear not, for the Lord thy God is with thee.

    Today I want to talk to you about “Freedom in the Fire”.  
There are few things that strike fear into people’s hearts like a fire.  It totally consumes, it destroys and disfigures.  It is hard to control.  In Christian circles, we refer to troubles and trials as fires for the very same reason.

Provision Without

December 23, 2013

Good Morning My Beloved Ones,

    I pray that when troubles beset you, you are running into the arms of God.

    Today I want to talk to you about “Provision Without”.  If you are a believer in Christ or have been receiving my letters for any length of time, you should know by now that God has provided every possible need for His children who love Him:  salvation, physical needs, forgiveness, restoration – you name it.  It is ours for the asking.  But what about those who don’t know God personally, who haven’t accepted Christ or been taught of Him.  Is there provision for them too?

HALT, in the name of the Lord!

December 16, 2013

Good Morning My Beloved Ones,

    I pray that you are walking hand-in-hand with the Lord, not running ahead of Him nor struggling to catch up.

    Today I want to talk to you about “Halt, in the name of the Lord!”  Ephesians 6:11

encourages us to put on the whole armor of God that we may stand against the wiles of the devil.  The word “wiles” in the Greek means “methods, trickery, or to lie in wait”.

    Have you ever wondered how a magician does his tricks?  Most of the time he uses misdirection.  He’ll get you focused on one thing so you won’t notice what he’s doing in another area.  Satan uses the same methods and trickery, but he will be less effective if we know where to be watching.

Spiritual Erosion

December 9, 2013

Good Morning, My Beloved Ones,

     I pray that the one who tries the hearts of men finds only love inside of yours.
     Today, I want to talk to you about “Spiritual Erosion”.  

Did you know that the Ouachita Mountains in Oklahoma area highly eroded remnant of a mountain chain believed to have once stretched from Texas into Southeastern Canada?  The state that once hosted a huge mountain range is now primarily flat prairie.  How did this happen?  It happened little by little, bit by bit, over much time through a process called erosion.  Erosion is a gradual undermining and wearing away caused by natural elements like wind, ice and water.
     Unfortunately, mountains are not the only thing in danger of erosion.  Did you know that 31% of evangelical Bible-believing people professing Christianity are pro-choice according to a recent poll?  How does a person go from believing that man is made in the image of God, that all life is sacred and believing that “thou shalt not kill” to believing that ending an unborn life can be an acceptable choice?  It happens little by little, bit by bit over much time through the undermining and wearing away of their belief in God’s truths by natural elements like disappointment in God, selfish desires and compromise.  It’s Spiritual Erosion.

No Shower Necessary

December 2, 2013

Good Morning My Beloved Ones,
     I pray that your ears are tuned to the still small voice and your feet are quick to follow it.
     Today I want to talk to you about “No Shower Necessary”.  In John Chapter 10 we find the account of Jesus washing His disciples’ feet.  Peter, appalled that the master (whom he’d earlier identified as the Son of God) should do something as menial as washing his feet, told Jesus not to.  Jesus responded that if Peter wouldn’t let Him wash his feet, he could have no part of Him.  Peter wanted so much of Christ in his life that he cried out, “then wash my hands and my head, too!”  To this Jesus answered, “If you’ve already been washed, you are already clean.  Only your feet need to be washed.”

     Jesus and His disciples lived in a desert.  They wore only sandals or went barefoot.  If they’d bathed when they got up that morning, they were clean enough, but their feet would have picked up all the dust and grime from the ground on which they walked.  So only their feet needed to be cleaned.

The Compartmentalized Christian

November 25, 2013

Good Morning My Beloved Ones,
     I pray that your cup runneth over with every good and perfect gift from above.

     Today I want to talk to you about “The Compartmentalized Christian”.  Do you remember the Swanson TV dinners?  They came with molded trays neatly compartmentalizing each part of the dinner so the turkey didn’t touch the mashed potatoes, which didn’t touch the corn, which didn’t touch the chocolate brownie.  Each part of the dinner had its own little section.  With the exception of the baked apples which seemed to bubble up and ooze over its borders into the vegetables, none of the food ever touched one another.
  

  It’s sad to say that there are people who claim the name of Christ who are just like a Swanson dinner.  Their lives have separate sections for Jesus, home, work, recreation and relationships.  Each is neatly sectioned off and does not spill into another.  Co-workers have no idea that they are Christians, they often engage in relationships and recreation that are inappropriate for a follower of Christ, and don’t incorporated Him into their daily home life.  They are Compartmentalized Christians.

The Legacy

November 18, 2013

Good Morning My Beloved Ones,

     I pray you are allowing God’s life-changing truths to change your life.

     Today I want to talk to you about “the Legacy”.  The Sidewalk Prophets sing a song that starts with the following line:  “Sometimes I think, what will people say of me, when I’m only just a memory, when I’m home where my soul belongs?”  The thoughts, memories, teaching, wisdom, example you leave behind when you are gone is your legacy.

     Have you given any thought to what your legacy will be?  Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto us and our children forever…”  Why is it so important to read the Bible and be in church where we can hear the teaching of God’s word?  Because once the truths are revealed to us, they can never be taken away.  They are ours forever.  Once read, you can’t un-read something.  Once heard, you can’t un-hear it.  It becomes part of you.  But not to us only – the scriptures says it’s for our children, too.  God’s truths that are revealed to us become our legacy to our children and grandchildren.

All Your Need

November 11, 2013

Good Morning My Beloved ones,

     I pray that your faith is not in what you see, but in the Unseen God who sees and knows all.

      Today I want to talk to you about “All your Need”.  Phillipians 4:19 says, “But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”  This is one of the most quoted scriptures in the Bible.  Do you believe it?  Has God met all your need?  If not, it could be that you aren’t in need.

     We Americans know very little about need.  Did you know that I Timothy 6:8 says that we are to be content with having food and clothes?  Not a house, not a car that runs.  Everything else is extra – blessing bestowed upon us by God.  In fact, I’d go as far as to say that the majority of us, including myself, could be better described by James 5:5 “Ye have lived in pleasure on this earth and been wanton.  Ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.”

Being Followed

November 4, 2012

Good Morning My Beloved Ones,

     I pray that when your life is in turmoil, those around you see the peace that passes all understanding.
     Today I want to talk to you about "Being Followed".  
Have you ever had car trouble and needed to go somewhere so you had someone follow you just in case you broke down on the way?  

     I was walking this morning and praying for a precious friend of mine who was in pain due to pushing his body beyond its limits and over-doing.  I told the Lord, "I know this pain is his own doing.  He brought it upon himself, but please touch him and take it away".  And the Lord responded, "Everyone's pain is their own doing.  You have brought your physical and emotional pains upon yourselves through sin, willfulness and pride.  That's why I give you mercy."
     Grace is getting something you don't deserve (like salvation and forgiveness).  Mercy is not getting something you do deserve (like eternity in Hell). 

Who You Gonna Call...

October 28, 2013,

Good Morning My Beloved Ones,

I pray you are walking in footprints bigger than your own and are holding tightly to the Father’s hand.

Today I want to talk to you about “Who you gonna call?”  Remember the movie, Ghostbusters?  It was so popular in the ‘80’s if you asked, “Who you gonna call?” the automatic response was “GHOST BUSTERS!” 

Nowadays if we get in trouble, who do we call? 9-1-1, our parents, our best friend, our accountant?  God said in Psalms 81:7 “Thou calledst in trouble and I delivered thee”, and the New Testament tells us that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

A friend of mine told me about a young man who was in a bad motorcycle accident.  He lay there on the pavement calling out for his mother.  She was nowhere near her son and had no ability to help him.  If only the young man had known to call out to Jesus!  How near is Jesus when we need Him?  Romans 10:8 says that He is nigh unto us – even in our mouths.  Paul was saying here that Jesus is so near all we have to do is call His name.  Not only is He right there, He saves us and delivers us from trouble.

We live in a world of troubled times.  When they come upon you, who are you gonna call, beloved ones?  Cry out to Jesus for He alone can save.

Just call His name, He’ll be there, Raelynn

Person of Privilege

October 21, 2013

Good Morning My Beloved Ones,

            I pray that you feel as blessed as you are, feel as loved as you are, and feel as special as you are.

            Today I want to talk to you about “a person of privilege”.  Numbers, chapter 16, tells us about a man named Korah who gathered 250 of Israel’s most prominent men to help him overthrow Moses as leader to take his place.  Who was this Korah that he should attempt such a thing?

            Korah was a Kohathite.  The Kohathites, Numbers, chapter 4 tells us, were the only people in Israel who were permitted to touch the most holy things in the tabernacle.  When the tabernacle was taken down so the people could move on, it was the Kohathites who carried the most holy instruments including the Ark of the Covenant which represented the very presence of God.  This was a high honor bestowed upon a few select people.  Korah was a person of privilege.  But Korah didn’t view himself as a person of privilege.  Numbers 16:9 says he thought it a small thing that the God of Israel separated him from the congregation to bring him near Himself for this special act of service.  Korah didn’t want to serve.  He wanted to be served.  It was personal ambition in spiritual clothing.

            How did God Respond to Korah’s rejection of his privileged position in order to gain personal promotion?  He caused the ground to open and swallow Korah and his family alive down into the pit and the 250 which followed him the Lord burned up with fire.

            Did you know that you are a person of privilege, beloved one?  The God of the universe has separated you unto Himself for a very special act of service.  You (and I) carry the most Holy instrument wherever we go.  We carry the Holy Spirit of God inside us (I Corinthians

6:19).  We take not the box that represented the presence of God as Korah did, but take God’s actual spirit with us everywhere we go.  This should not seem a small thing to us, beloved ones.

            It’s time we saw ourselves as people of privilege.  Recognize the honor that has been bestowed upon you and put away any desire for personal promotion.  Become content with who God has called you to be and the role you play in His kingdom.  Godliness with contentment is great gain (I Timothy 6:6).

Privileged to serve Him, your sister Raelynn

Help!...I've Fallen...

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October 14, 2013 

Good Morning My Beloved Ones,

I pray your heart is kind, your words are sweet and your hands are quick, to help.

Today I want to talk to you about, “Help, I’ve fallen…”  By now you’ve probably come to the realization that none of us are perfect and we are all going to fail at times.  Like the bumper sticker says, “Christians aren’t perfect, they’re just forgiven.”  Since falling is a given, let’s talk about what happens when you fall.

When I introduced the topic of this letter, most of you probably finished the line from the commercial in your mind: “…and I can’t get up.”  You are chuckling, but the truth is that the advertising and the “wisdom” of this world permeates our thinking and often gives us a mindset that a counterproductive to a successful walk with the Lord.  If we hear the words, “Help, I’ve fallen” and immediately think, “and I can’t get up”, do you suppose that could subconsciously hinder our ability to recover from the fall?  Proverbs 24:16 tells us that a just man can fall seven times and the Lord picks him up every time.  I want to train your mind to learn a new jingle:  “Help, I’ve fallen and the Lord picks me up.”  Go on.  Say it a few times.  Let the truth of it roll over your lips and spill down into your soul.

So often when we fall and our immediate thought is “-and I can’t get up”, we dig ourselves deeper into which we’ve fallen.  We beat ourselves up for falling in the first place; we believe Satan’s lies that a “good” Christian wouldn’t have fallen, so why would God want to pick us up?  Some of us believe we aren’t strong enough to get up or it’s not worth the effort, or that we somehow deserve to be in the pit where we have fallen because it was our own doing that got us there.  I’m here to tell you that God is more interested in getting us to Heaven than we are in getting there.  That’s why He sent Jesus.  Psalm 40:2 says, “He brought me out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay and set my feet on a rock, and established my goings.”  That rock is Jesus.

Have you fallen, beloved one?  Let God pull you out of the pit and set you in Jesus and establish you.  And if you fall into the same pit the very next day, let God pull you out of the pit and set you in Jesus and establish you.  And if you fall into the same pit the very next day, …a just man falls seen times and the Lord picks him up every time.  You are made righteous by the blood of Jesus, beloved ones.

You are going to fall.  Expect it.  But when you do, cry out, “Help.  I’ve fallen and the Lord picks me up”, then let Him do it.  Learn the new jingle, my friends and become transformed by the renewing of your minds.

No longer afraid of falling, Your sister, Raelynn

The Encounter

October 7, 2013

Good Morning my beloved ones,

            I pray you are making the most of each opportunity given you, for they are divine appointments from God.

            Today I want to talk to you about “the Encounter”.  A client came into my office the other day and shared with me how his wife came to the Lord.  The story touched me, and I want to share it with you.  My client was a Christian who had put God on the back burner of his relationship and was choosing to do his own thing.  He was living with a woman to whom he was not married and who did not know the Lord.  She had not read the Bible, they did not discuss religious things.  The man and woman shared other interests, but God was not one of them.  One day the woman was in a serious accident and fell into a coma.  She went into the coma a sinner who knew nothing of God, a soul destined for Hell.  She awoke from the coma saved and loving Jesus.  When the woman emerged from the coma she was beside herself with excitement.  She grasped her boyfriend’s arm and cried, “I was with Jesus!  I know it was Jesus.  
I couldn’t look upon His face, but He held me and I felt overwhelming love and I confessed all I ever did and pledged my life to Him”.  Her word’s were confident, her eyes sparkled with truth and love.  When she was in the darkest place – the depths of a coma – she had an encounter with Jesus and it changed her life.  In fact, two lives were changed that day.  My client repented and recommitted his life to Jesus.  The two were married and have been serving Jesus together now for over 13 years.

            This story reminds me of another encounter in the Bible.  Jesus said He needed to go to Samaria.  He had an appointment with a woman at a well.  This woman had had 5 husbands and was currently living with a man to whom she was not married.  When the woman encountered Jesus, He told her all she ever did and extended His love, forgiveness and grace to her.  She too, repented and ran to tell others of her encounter with Jesus.

            The stories of both women’s salvation touch me because these women did not seek out Jesus.  He sought out them.  Luke 19:10 says “For the Son of Man is come to seek and save that which is lost”.  Know this, beloved, Jesus sees you in your darkest place and He loves you enough to plan an encounter with you.  But why wait for Him to seek you?  Run to Jesus, beloved ones.  Encounter Him now.  Let Him hold you in His arms and extend His love, forgiveness and grace to you.  It will change your life.

            It’s time to wake from our comas, my friends.  It’s time to come alive to the excitement of a relationship with the living Christ!

Alive in Him - Raelynn

Buyer's Remorse

September 30, 2013

Good Morning My Beloved Ones,

            I pray that should the Lord suddenly return, He find you eagerly waiting and about His business.

            Today I want to talk to you about “Buyer’s Remorse”.  When we purchase something, we exchange something of value (usually money) for the object of our desire.  Sometimes, after the purchase is made, the buyer feels he paid too high a price or that the object purchased wasn’t worth the price he paid.  It’s called buyers remorse.  Have you experienced it?  I have.

            I Corinthians 6:20 tells us that we have been bought with a price.  The price was very costly.  We were paid for with the blood of One who chose to give His life in exchange for our eternal freedom.  I think sometimes about the humiliation and torture that Jesus endured upon that cross and think, “Lord, was I worth it?  Do you ever look at the life I’m choosing to live and wish you hadn’t?  Was the price too great to pay for what you got in exchange?”  It’s a sobering thought.  It’s a question I don’t take lightly.

        

   Jesus knew the price He would have to pay for our salvation.  In the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed so earnestly to the Father asking if there was any other way (basically trying to negotiate a lower price) that the blood vessels in His forehead broke.  And when the Father said the price was non-negotiable, He agreed to pay it.

            What did Jesus get in return?  Romans 5:7,8 puts it this way:  “For scarcely a righteous man one will die; yet perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die.  But God commendeth His love toward us, in what while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.”  Jesus knew what He was paying the ultimate price for:  people who didn’t know Him, didn’t love Him, and were openly rebelling against Him.  It really sounds like He got the raw end of the deal, doesn’t it?  How could He not have buyer’s remorse?

            But He doesn’t!  Listen to what Hebrews 12:2 says, “Looking unto

Jesus…who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross…”  We are that joy, beloved ones!  He not only felt that we, at our worst, were worth suffering and dying for, He counted it a joy!

            I don’t know about you, beloved, but that makes me determined to want to live a life worthy of such love, worthy of such sacrifice.  We can never repay Christ for what He did for us.  We can’t do enough good deeds or become holy enough.  Even if we spent every waking moment reading the Bible or in church or doing for others, it wouldn’t be enough.  But He doesn’t ask us to do any of those things.  All He wants from us is our love.  I love Jesus because He first loved me.  I will never, could never love anyone more.  I hope that is true of you as well.

Not worthy but worth it – His grateful servant - Raelynn

The Two Edged Sword

September 23, 2013

Good Morning My Beloved Ones,

            I pray with each day your confidence is growing in who you are and in your unique purpose in this world.

            Today I want to talk to you about “The Two-edged Sword”.  Hebrews 4:12 says, “The Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword…”  What is a two-edged sword?  Most blades have one sharp cutting edge and a duller, flatter edge.  A two-edged sword is one that cuts both ways.

            One of the most comforting scriptures in the Bible is Hebrews 13:5:  “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.”  How many times when I’ve been in trouble, felt alone, was scared, have I clung to these words?  And I felt the Lord’s presence and the comfort these words were intended to convey.  But I’ve also felt the other edge of the sword.  When God said, “I will never leave thee…”, He meant I will never leave thee.  God is right there during those times when I am not feeling so spiritual, when I am making deliberate choices to sin or behave in a way that is not pleasing to God.  He doesn’t turn His back, look away or go for a walk during these times.  He never leaves me nor forsakes me.

            So, is the purpose of the two-edged sword to bless me when I’m good and punish me when I’m bad?  No.  The purpose is found in the rest of Hebrews 4:12: “…piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit…and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”  Your soul is your mind, will and emotions.  Your spirit is what was breathed into you by God.  The purpose of the two-edged sword is to separate soul and spirit so we will have a clear choice whether to serve self (soul) or God (spirit).

            Have you ever said or done something then had the thought, “Now why did I do that?”  Our scripture tells us that the two-edged sword is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

            Thank God for His precious word.  I love it more each day.  It brings me comfort from His promises but also cuts the other way and shows me who I am and who I need to be.  The wounds of a friend are faithful Proverbs 27:6 tells us.  We may get wounded by the two edged sword at times, but those wounds are faithful to make us into the child of God we are meant to be.

Love in Christ, Raelynn

Becoming Moses

September 16, 2013

Good Morning My Beloved Ones,

            I pray that God smiles on you today and that you feel the warmth from head to toe.

            Today I want to talk to you about “Becoming

Moses”.  If you could pick any personality in the Bible to be like (other than Jesus), who would you choose?  David was a man after God’s own heart, but I wouldn’t want to be at war as much as he was.  Solomon was wise and rich, but he also lost his anointing and had his eyes put out.  I’d love to preach and do miracles like Paul, but I could do without prison, being shipwrecked, beaten and left for dead, etc.  I think I would choose Moses.  Go used him to deliver His people, performed miracles through him and listen to what God says about Moses in Numbers chapter 12:  “If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known to him in a vision and will speak to him in a dream.  My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house.  With him will I speak mouth to mouth and not in dark places, and the likeness of the Lord shall he behold; why then are you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”  Oh, to have God speak of me that way!  But Moses did not become this person overnight.  Indeed, there was a process to becoming this Moses that we all must follow if we wish to be like him.

            For the first 40 years of Moses’ life he lived in Egypt in Pharoah’s palace.  He was a prince in the land; a man of  authority.  He was somebody.  
The 2^nd 40 years of Moses’ life was spent tending sheep in the desert of Midian.  Egyptians regarded shepherds as an abomination.  No longer prince of Egypt, Moses was now nobody.  

The 3^rd 40 years of Moses’ life was spent heeding the call of God, delivering His people out of the bondage of Egypt and leading them to the Promised Land.  Moses became God’s body.

 We can have the kind of relationship Moses had with God.  We just have to follow the path he did.  We have to reach the place in our lives where it’s not all about us – where we allow God to take us from being somebody to realizing we are nobody without him.  In this broken and humbled state, we can hear the call of God on our lives and allow ourselves to be used as the Lord sees fit.  We can become God’s body.

            Do you see yourselves along this path, beloved ones?  Are you living the self-centered life of a somebody?  Have you been broken and humbled and are feeling like a nobody?  Maybe you’ve been through both these stages and have heard the call of God on your life and are ready to start being God’s body.  Wherever you are on the journey, keep pressing on.  It took Moses 120 years to become the man God spoke so highly of.  It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen.

Living for the day I hear my Lord say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant”, your sister in Christ, Raelynn.

Tinted - Tainted

September 9, 2013

Good Morning My Beloved Ones,

            I pray that you hear the still small voice of God amid all the noise and chaos of life around you.

            Today I want to talk to you about “tinted and tainted”.  There’s a country music song that talks about “these rose colored glasses that I’m looking through that show only the beauty and hide all the truth.”  Have you owned a pair of glasses like that?  We probably all have at one time or another.  These tinted glasses give us a distorted or tainted view of reality.

            Another pair of tinted glasses we are prone to look through at times are the sepia-toned glasses of Nostalgia, fondly known as the “good ole days”.  Remember when pot was something you cooked in, being gay meant you were happy and gas cost less than $1 per gallon?  Boy, those were the good ole days!  But just like the rose-colored glasses, our vision with the sepia-toned glasses of nostalgia is often tainted.

            A prime example of this is found in Numbers chapter 11.  The children of Israel were growing tired of the manna which God miraculously supplied for them in the wilderness and they started reminiscing about Egypt.  “We remember the fish we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions and the garlic.”  They saw all the varieties of foods available in Egypt through their sepia-toned glasses, but somehow failed to see the back-breaking work of making bricks from sun-up to sun-down, being required to meet a quota without being given the materials necessary to do the job and being whipped by the taskmaster when they inevitably failed.  Some of them were so moved by their distorted vision of the past that they even talked about going back to Egypt!

            We, too, are sometimes tempted to return to the past we’ve been delivered from because we only remember the good times and fail to see the heartache through our sepia-toned glasses.  Because the apostle Paul knew the danger of this, he gave the following advice in Phillipians 3:13, “but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

            Do you long for the good ole days, beloved ones?  Take off the tinted glasses that taint your vision and you’ll realize that the good ole’ days weren’t all good.  It’s time to forget the things which are behind and reach for the things which are ahead of us.  For now we see through a glass darkly, but then we shall see Jesus face to face.

            Giving up my tinted glasses, your sister, Raelynn

When in Rome...

September 2, 2013

Good Morning My Beloved Ones,

            I pray that the Lord Himself guide you everywhere you go and that in each place you will be a blessing.

            Today I want to talk to you about “When in Rome”.  You’ve heard it said, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”  I was reading in Leviticus 18 where God said to the children of Israel, “According to the doings of the Land of Egypt where you dwelt you shall not do; and according to the doings of the land of Canaan where I am bringing you, you shall not do; nor shall you walk in their ordinances.  You shall observe My judgments and keep My ordinances to walk in them:  I am the Lord your God”.  God was saying, “When in Rome, do not do as the Romans do – do as I have instructed you.”

            There is a time coming, beloved ones, and it is already here, when there will be immense pressure on God’s people to conform; to compromise their beliefs and standards and to tolerate that which God has called sin and abomination in order to foster peace and unity. 

Failure to conform, compromise and be tolerant will be viewed as “hate crimes” punishable by the law.  Yes, I’m talking about right here in the good ole’ U.S. of A.  There will be a clear line drawn in the sand and each person will have to choose whether they will do according to the doings of their nation or according to the judgments and ordinances of their God.

            God instructs us in Romans 12:2 to “be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…”  That word, “renewing” means renovation – as in gutting the interior of a house and putting in all new walls, floors and fixtures.  We have to gut our minds of all the garbage that society has filled it with that is contrary to the Word of God and renovate it with His instruction, judgments, and ordinances.  With our minds transformed in this way, we will not be conformed to this world.  When in Rome, we will not be swayed to do as the Romans do, but will ask, “What would Jesus do?” and follow that course instead.

            We can only do this, my friends, when we know

whom we have believed and are persuaded that He is able to keep that which we’ve committed unto Him against that day.  Get to know Him more, my beloved ones.  Come to love Him more, to trust Him more and be not afraid.  If God is for us, who then can be against us?

Your sister in Christ, Raelynn

When all else fails...

August 26, 2013

Good Morning My Beloved ones,

            I pray that everywhere you look you see the evidence of God’s incredible love for you.

            Today I want to talk to you about “When all else Fails”.  Every smart phone, camera, computer, TV, electronic device or appliance that you can buy today comes with an instruction manual.  The inventor of whatever gadget you’ve purchased knows exactly how it was designed, what it will and will not do, under which conditions it functions and under which conditions it malfunctions and even lists things to do when it isn’t working the way you think, it should.  

He packed all his first-hand knowledge for this particular item into a little booklet that accompanies the purchase.  The problem is, most people are so excited to try out their new gadget that they toss the little booklet aside never to be seen again until the gadget malfunctions and when all else fails, they read the instructions.  Sound familiar?  You are not alone.

            I’ve heard people say, “I sure wish life (or parenting) came with an instruction manual?”  

Guess what?  They do.  It’s called the Bible.  Perhaps you’ve heard the acronym: Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.  Most people think of the Bible as a big list of do’s and don’ts, and if you do all the “do’s” God smiles upon you and blesses you, and if you do all the “don’ts” God gets angry and punishes you.  I’d like to challenge you to look at the Bible differently – look at it as an instruction manual.

            The creator (inventor) of this world designed the world to benefit those who live there.  He created a world in which no one would be sick, no one would die, every living thing could live in harmony together with no danger, no fear, no need that His creation could not meet.  He put all the instructions for operating this world in His instruction manual – the Bible.  But from the beginning, man was more interested in figuring out the world himself and wanted to do things his way.  The instruction manual became lost, thrown away, or relegated to a dusty shelf.

            Today, many are realizing that their world isn’t working the way it should.  They’ve tried many remedies to fix it and nothing works.  When all else fails, it is time to read the instruction manual, my friends.

            The Bible has instruction for healthy diet, saving, spending, earning and lending money, relationships with relatives, friends, strangers, bosses and co-workers.  It has instructions for parenting, for running a church, for maintaining a relationship with God, even for a healthy sex life.  The Bible has instructions for dealing with every situation that can arise in this world.  When the instructions are followed, the world works the way it was designed to and blessing and harmony follow.  When the instructions are not followed, the world does not function as it was meant to and pain and disharmony follow.  The Bible is not a book of reward and punishment, rather one of cause and effect.

            The Bible is God’s gift to man – the gift of his

first-hand knowledge of the world He created.  It instructs us how to daily live in a way that is healthy and beneficial.  It teaches us how to live life as it was intended to be lived.

            We’d all be wise to dig out our instruction manuals, brush them off and become acquainted with these life-enhancing instructions.  When all else fails…the Bible doesn’t!

Learning to follow instructions, Raelynn