No Fear

Good Morning My Beloved Ones,

      I pray that you walk each day with your heads held high and your hearts bowed low.

 

     Today I want to talk to you about “No Fear”.  I was talking to a friend recently who was sharing that though he’s accepted Christ, is praying and doing all that he knows to do, he still feels like he’s on the edge of a nervous breakdown.  He’s crippled by fear and anxiety and is even taking medication to control it.  Maybe some of you have found yourselves in my friend’s shoes.  I am here to tell you that you don’t have to live in fear.  There is help, there is hope, there is an answer, and it’s not found in medication.

     Before I injured my knee, I would walk 8 miles every morning.  I would leave at 5:30 am, and between October and February it would still be dark as I began my walk.  I was warned that the neighborhood I walked in is not the safest and was asked, “Aren’t you afraid?”  The answer is no.  I used wisdom:  I walked on the busiest streets, under streetlights, avoided shadows and parking lots and carried my phone.  But these were not the reasons I wasn’t afraid.   You see, the whole time I was walking, I was in communion with the God I had dedicated my life to serving.  It would be extremely foolish for someone to accost the servant of the Most High God while they are in His very presence.  I have no fear because I know who I know.  I am God’s and I am confident that He is able to keep me from or through any circumstance that may befall me.

     The key to living without fear, I told my friend, is in relationship – in truly knowing God.  Don’t be satisfied with saying a prayer and securing salvation, beloved ones.  Seek out God.  Read about Him in His Word.  Spend time communing with Him, spend time being still and learning to hear and recognize His voice.  Allow his truths to transform you.  Come to the place where your one desire is to please and serve Him.  When you do these things, you’ll come to realize that God is bigger than any worry or fear.  When worries try to plague my mind or my heart leaps into my throat in fear, I remember Whom I serve, and the fear leaves.  I know Who I know. 

No God, know fear.  Know God, no fear.

Becoming fearless, Raelynn

The Hard Way

Good Morning My Beloved Ones,

      I pray you are quick to yield your will and your ways to that of the Father, for Father knows best.

     Today I want to talk to you about “The Hard Way”.  If you’ve ever watched a crime drama on TV, I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “Now we can do this the easy way or the hard way, it’s up to you.”  The detective/prosecutor/policeman was saying, “We know you’re guilty, you are going to jail.  You can cooperate and confess and this will go quickly or you can resist and deny and make things more difficult for yourself.”

     I can’t tell you how many times in my life I’ve heard people say to me, “Why didn’t you just…?”  It seems that for everything I attempt to do there is an easier, quicker, more efficient way to do it that never occurred to me until someone said, “Why didn’t you just….?”  I always seem to do things the hard way.  It just comes naturally to me.  And not to me only – this problem started in the Garden of Eden.

     Adam and Eve had it easy in the garden.  It was paradise.  They had every kind of desirable food at their fingertips for the picking.  But when they defied God, what was their punishment?  God told Adam in Genesis 3:19 that he would now have to labor and sweat to get his food.  He’d have to do it the hard way.

     God has an easy, efficient, perfect way for us to live our lives, beloved ones.  But most of us choose to do things our way – the hard way.  I have tried to do things in my own strength and have failed.  I then cried out to God for help and have heard Him say, “Why didn’t you just open the Book?  Why didn’t you just call upon Me?”

     Oh God, let us not be too stubborn or prideful to yield to your ways.  Let us avail ourselves of the provision you’ve made for us.  Let us all come to realize that it’s your way or the hard way.

 

Learning to just…. Yield.  Your sister in Christ, Raelynn

Circumstances

Good Morning My Beloved Ones,

      I pray your vision is improving day by day so that you are increasingly able to see the things which are unseen and eternal.

     Today I want to talk to you about “Circumstances”.  When we hear that word, it usually brings a negative picture to our minds, doesn’t it?  There’s a reason for that.  This word can be broken down into two parts:  circum (which means to go around.  We get our word “circumference” from this root) and stance (which means to stand with feet firmly planted).  A circumstance then, is anything that goes around your firmly planted ideals or plans.  We don’t like it when things happen contrary to our ideals and plans and that’s why we generally view circumstances in a negative light.

     God is a great user of circumstances.  His first use of them is to motivate people to pray.  Think about your own prayer life for a minute.  Most of us would have to admit that the majority of our prayers are about our circumstances.  If not for circumstances, some of us would not pray at all.  But this is only one way in which God uses this mighty tool.

     Isaiah 55:9 says “For as the Heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  Our first thought in the midst of circumstances is to follow the world’s example:  When in times of fear and doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.  Our second thought is often to pray and ask God to fix our circumstances.  God’s thoughts are much different.  He is not interested in fixing our circumstances.  He wants to use our circumstances to fix us.

     Do you realize, beloved ones, that no circumstance can come upon us unless God allows it?  He is sovereign.  He doesn’t bring things contrary to our plans and ideals to upset us.  He brings them to fix us.  Sometimes we are firmly planted in wrong beliefs, unforgiveness, stubbornness, or something else he wants to circumvent in our lives.  Sometimes we are just rooted in complacency, not motivated to pray or minister God’s love to others.

     The circumstance in which you find yourself is a tool in the hand of God, my friends.  Thank God for your circumstances and instead of asking Him to fix them, ask Him to let them fix you.

 

No longer a victim of circumstance - Raelynn  

I'm a Good Person

Good Morning My Beloved Ones,

      I pray peace to your spirit, love to your heart, joy to your soul, and wisdom to your mind.

     Today I want to talk to you about, “I’m a Good Person”.  Over the years, I’ve asked people, “If you were to die tonight, would you go to Heaven?”  I’ve never had anyone answer, “No”.  I usually hear, “Yes”, “I hope so”, “I think so”, or “I don’t know”.  The next line that usually follows the last three responses is, “I’m a good person.  I keep the 10 Commandments.  I haven’t killed anyone.”

     We humans have become very good at deceiving ourselves.  The truth is, there is no such thing as a good person.  In Matthew 19:17 Jesus said, “…there is none good but one, that is God…”  Good people don’t make it to Heaven because they don’t exist.  Only those who admit they are sinners (that they fail and are not good), who accept Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for their sins gain eternal life. 

     Let’s look at the rest of the responses for a minute.  Would you say you’ve kept the 10 Commandments, beloved ones?  If we believe we have, I’d say again that we are deceiving ourselves.  We usually jump right to the big two:  I haven’t killed anyone and I haven’t committed adultery, and based on these two kept commandments declare ourselves to be a good person.  But what about the very first commandment?  Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.  Is Jesus really first in every area of your life?  Have your own will and desires ever been put before God’s will and desires for your life?  If so, you’ve made yourself a god before Him.

     We’re not good people, beloved ones.  We can’t even keep the first commandment much less master all ten.  But God in His mercy made a way for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Whether or not you’ve ever killed anyone, you are not a good person and you’ve not kept the 10 Commandments.  Me neither.

     Let’s be honest with ourselves and God and accept the sacrifice Jesus made for us.  Once you do, if you are ever asked, you can say with confidence, “Good people don’t go to Heaven, but I’m going to, thanks to my Lord Jesus Christ.”

 

No one comes to the Father but by Jesus - Raelynn

Hisabled

Good Morning My Beloved Ones,

      I pray you seek out every opportunity to do good to others, to be a blessing and portray the love of Christ.

     Today I want to talk to you about “Hisabled”.  Recently a good friend of mine, one of my beloved ones, suffered a stroke.  I sat at lunch with her watching her struggle to put her thoughts into words.  I could see her concentrating, her mouth working, but the brain just couldn’t make the connection.  It was very frustrating for her.  A few days later, in my prayer time, the Lord prompted me to write her a letter telling her that though she has trouble communicating with others right now, she can still freely communicate with God.  It’s just a brain injury – not a spirit injury.  She could use this as an opportunity for praying on behalf of others and turn this time into something valuable.  She could help change people’s lives.  She could turn a disability into Hisability.

     Have you ever noticed how people with Down’s Syndrome seem to have a sweet innocence about them and an uncanny, seemingly unnatural ability to love?  I believe that’s because God gives them a piece of His spirit to compensate for the defective gene, much in the same way one who is blind will have a keener sense of hearing or a fine-tuned sense of touch.

     People so often think there is something “wrong” with someone who is disabled.  I’d like to submit to you that the disabled could be more “right” than many we see as whole.  Beloved, if you suffer from any type of physical or mental disability, I would tell you “it’s not a spirit injury.”  Submit your time and efforts to God.  Let Him use you for His kingdom and His glory.  Go from being disabled to Hisabled.

 

Love in Christ, Raelynn

High Treason

Good Morning My Beloved Ones,

      I pray that with each day you are giving yourself more completely to the One who gave Himself for you.

     Today I want to talk to you about “High Treason”.  Treason is defined as the “violation of allegiance toward one’s country or sovereign, by waging war against it or consciously or purposefully acting to aid its enemies.”

    Genesis chapters 1-3 tells us that in the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth and He created man in His own image, both male and female.  Everything God created was perfect and reflected His glory, including Adam and Eve.  There was no death, no illness, no decay, no hatred, no ugliness – only perfection.  Until the day that Satan in the form of a serpent convinced Eve that she should violate her allegiance to Sovereign (possessing supreme or ultimate power) God by choosing to indulge her own will and reject His.  Adam chose to do the same thing, and history was changed.  Death, decay, and every evil thing entered God’s perfect creation and continues to reign on Earth to this day.

     People today, even Christians, have no idea how serious sin is.  They think it’s just a “religious term” meant to condemn them and make them feel bad.  Sin is the choice to indulge our own will and violate our allegiance to God’s sovereign will.  Romans 8:7 says that when we indulge our own wills (are carnally minded) it is enmity (making an enemy) against God.
  Sin, my friends, is the highest form of treason and it carries the death penalty.  (Romans 6:23)

     Take a look at the world around you.  Everything you see is the result of sin.  Sin is nothing more than choosing our way over God’s way, but it has such grave consequences.  It had the ability to change God’s perfect creation into the fallen world in which we live.  All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23 states.  But God commended His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  He took our death penalty for the crime of High Treason.

     Take the advice Jesus gave the woman caught in adultery, beloved ones.  Go and sin no more.  You can do it.  It’s a choice to submit to God’s will in all things.  If you sincerely desire it, He will help you.  When you fall and sin as we all do, His grace will be sufficient for you.

Pardoned for my crime - Raelynn

Unfiltered

Good Morning My Beloved Ones,

      I pray that every day you are looking for opportunities to glorify your God.

     Today I want to talk to you about “Unfiltered”.  If you are a child of God and have asked Jesus into your

heart, you have the mind of Christ.  Did you know that?  It’s true.  Read 1 Corinthians 2:16.  Why then, are our minds so un-Christ-like so much of the time?  It’s because they are unfiltered.  We sit in this world, listen to those around us, sit in front of the flat screen for hours a day or surf the web and we allow everything we say, hear, think, watch, do and feel to come right in.  The mind of Christ gets cluttered with the excess of the world until sometimes we forget it’s there at all.

     Here is a diagnostic for you: “Hot dogs, Armour hot dogs, what kind of kids eat Armour hot dogs?”  Can you list them?  Now try this one:  “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.”  What kind of little children does Jesus love?  Can you list them?  This simple test can give you some insight into how cluttered your mind is getting.  What’s getting in and staying put: more of the world or more of Christ?  Maybe nothing is getting through…oops!

     Don’t despair, beloved ones.  I have a filter for you.  It’s found in Phillipians 4:8.  “Whatsoever things are true, honest, pure, just, lovely, of good report…think on these things.”  With the filter in place, you can choose what goes into your mind and what to reject.  Let’s say you go into a dentist’s office and a nice soft rock station is playing and John Lennon’s Imagine comes on.  “Imagine there’s no Heaven…”  Wait a minute! “…whatsoever things are true…”  Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you.”  So the filter rejects the song and doesn’t let it in and the mind of Christ is less cluttered with the useless excess of the world.

 

     Phillipians 2:5 says, “Let this mind be in you which is in Christ Jesus.”  It’s already there, but we’ve got to allow it to function as it was designed to function.  We’ve got to apply and use the filter.  Think about what an unfiltered cigarette does to a lung.  That’s what an unfiltered mind does to the mind of Christ.

Something to think on - Raelynn    

He Who Hesitates

Good Morning My Beloved Ones,

      I pray that your mind is sharp and your tongue isn’t and you know when to use each one.

     Today I want to talk to you about “He who Hesitates”.  “He who hesitates is lost”, the saying goes.  I saw an example of this on TV the other day.  I was watching American Ninja Warrior.   It’s an intense athletic competition as athletes around the US try to become the first American to complete an intimidating and grueling Japanese obstacle course called Mt. Midoriama.

  The competitor I was watching was hanging from a metal bar 14’ in the air and had to jump the bar from one set of rungs to another several feet away.  There were six sets of rungs to this particular obstacle.  The man quickly jumped through the first four, but on the 5^th he hesitated, losing his momentum and came just short, falling into the water below.  He lost his chance to become the American Ninja Warrior.

     In Acts chapter 26, the Apostle Paul had been ministering to King Agrippa.  In verse 27 he says, “King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets?  I know you believe.”  And Agrippa hesitated.  He responded.  “Paul, you almost persuaded me to become a Christian.”  Agrippa never did make that step and he was lost for eternity.

     Are you hesitating to step out in the things to which God is calling you, beloved ones?  Has He been knocking at the door of your heart for salvation but you’ve been hesitant to answer?  Is He calling you to a ministry, into a closer walk with Him, or to give up something that is not beneficial to you?  He who hesitates is lost.  Don’t be Agrippa, my friends, or the one who falls just short of his goal.  Genesis 6:3 tells us that the Holy Spirit will not always strive with man.  We only have so many chances.  We never know if this one will be our last.  Heed His call beloved ones – hesitate no more.

No longer lost, Raelynn

Another Statistic

Good Morning My Beloved Ones,

      I pray you are redeeming the time for the days are evil.

     Today I want to talk to you about “Another Statistic”.  Last year something happened that drastically changed my life.  We had a speaker at church from Gospel for Asia.  He made a statement that reached in and grabbed my 

soul and hasn’t let me go since.  He said, “With every beat of your heart, another soul slips into Hell.”  I put my hand over my heart and felt how often it beat, and tears welled up in my eyes.

     I’ve been a Christian for over 30 years.  My call has always been to the body of Christ – to encourage, teach, uplift, exhort – to enable them to stand and be effective in the end times, to encourage them to continue when they feel like quitting, to help them realize their own calling in Christ.  It was someone else’s call to reach the lost, to talk to the hurting and wayward ones and show them the Way.  So while I knew the lost were dying and going to Hell, it wasn’t really my problem. Until now.

     The Lord opened my eyes that morning in church.  He showed me that the Great Commission was not just to pastors.  We are all to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”  He also showed me that I felt safe ministering to the body of Christ.  They already believe.  They won’t reject me or think I’m off my rocker.  He told me that He desired me to do both – represent Him to the body of Christ and to the lost and hurting who need His salvation and deliverance.

     In that moment, God put a fire in my soul and a determination in my heart.  I determined that with every beat of my heart, I didn’t want someone to become another statistic sliding into Hell.  I want to change  the statistic.  With every beat of my heart, I want another soul to find hope and eternal life in Jesus Christ.  He gave me a boldness and confidence and took away the fear of rejection and ridicule.  He began putting strangers in my path for me to minister to.  By the grace of God, no one I meet will become just another statistic.

May the Lord grab your heart and change your lives, beloved ones, as He did mine.  Your sister, Raelynn