One

For a small three letter word - ONE is a very significant word.

You can’t start anything without it.

First one.

You can’t finish anything without it.

Last one.

It can be romantic.

The right one.

It can feel exclusive.

The chosen one.

It can feel disappointing.

The wrong one.

Sometimes people pine away (especially fisherman) for the one that got away.

Sometimes it can be frustrating as in the one that broke the camel’s back.

It is a beginning.

Genesis ONE:ONE “In the beginning….”

And it can be an ending.

One more for the road.

One last slice.

One last bite…….

Even the Encyclopedia Britannica says one is important, “The number 1 symbolizes unity and the origin of all things, since all other numbers can be created from 1 by adding enough copies of it. For example, 7 = 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1.” I really could go on, but I think you get the idea!

Because really, I want to point you in the direction of the most significant One of all -  Jesus Christ the Only One. He is the only one that can keep His promise to you of eternal life. John 3:16 confirms, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” 

One and done.  He died and rose again to take away the sins of one world. Please don’t miss that one - He died for the sins of everyone - not just Christians - everyone. Believer and non-believer alike - one for all. It is up to you to receive that gift because Jesus also told us in John 14:6 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

But also don’t miss the part where Jesus rose again! Jesus is the one and only “religious” leader that rose from the dead! Muhammed died and he is still dead as is Buddha, Joseph Smith, L. Ron Hubbard, and Confusius.

Hebrews 4:12 begins with, “For the word of God is alive and active.” John ONE:ONE says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This confirms that we serve a living Lord.  Willing and able to keep His promises! He told us in John 14:1-4, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Luke reminds us of that way in Acts 4:12, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” If you want to receive the gift waiting for you from the One and Only Jesus Christ simply pray this prayer:

Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior.

Every journey begins with one step and I am so glad you took it!  Jesus has been waiting for you!  Neil Armstrong said it best even if he was talking about stepping on to the moon, “That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

 

Get Out!

 

My poor husband was ripped from his sleep last night by his wife screaming, “Get out! GET OUT NOW!”

I was dreaming that I was going to open a little shop and two of my nieces were helping me get ready to open. I, being unaccustomed to wearing heels (in reality due to an injury and a fused foot can’t actually wear heels) slipped and landed harshly on my back side.  I said to my one niece, “Well, that’s embarrassing!” She replied as she turned to show me a mark on her own back side, “It happens!”  I told the pair that I was going to pop out of the store and go buy some flowers to brighten our day.

As I entered with a beautiful bouquet, I stopped to write on the cute little chalkboard, “Flowers are a lovely gift no matter who buys them.”  As I set the flowers on the counter, we heard a supernatural scratching on the board and it read, “even from me?”

I looked at the two girls and heard a supernatural voice speak the words and immediately the walls went dark and began to press in on us.  I defensively had the two girls stand behind me and it was then I began to shout. The command in the dream manifested in my husband’s reality and I was brought out of the dream by his strong arms protectively around me. I told him, “the devil was trying to get me.”  He responded, “well, he’s not getting in here!”  And I know my husband was right.

Romans 8:11 says, “The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you.” Since the gift of the Holy Spirit resides within me, I know I can rely on Him and immediately prayed, “God! You are welcome here and if you’re not from God you MUST go out the door NOW!”  Then I prayed for the two nieces that were in my dream, turned on worship music, and fell back asleep to dream about the surprising news that Mrs. Walton was going to have another baby (as if I was watching tv.)

But how was that seed planted in my subconscious? In the book that was Yesterday, A History of Sisters by Tillie Wilson and Alice Scott, they chronicle that Central Oregon was covered with bunchgrass that was good for grazing cattle, but that around 1910, homesteaders wanting to plant wheat brought in seed that contained cheatgrass. By 1916, the wheat failed, but it is estimated that 9 million acres of Central Oregon are now covered with the noxious cheatgrass. One stalk can have up to 5,000 seeds and it burns like tissue paper, not an especially good attribute in wildfire country. It didn’t take much for it to get a stronghold and take over.

Similar to the cheatgrass, in Matthew 13: 24-30  Jesus warns us that we will be existing alongside weeds and sometimes they will be hard to recognize.

“24 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

27 “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’

28 “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.

“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

29 “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

There is an advertisement for a movie that the second I see it,  I shut off the tv.  I don’t need to be assaulted by an easily recognized weed, because the world is full of hard to see cheatgrass.  Since the world is also full of God’s glory and creation, I’m not saying walk through your days frightened and paranoid because Deuteronomy 31:6 assures us, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”  

Still, I am saying, be aware and guard your ears and eyes. Even though Jesus would leave the 99 sheep to find you if you were lost, why put yourself at that risk?  Our human nature isn’t all that trustworthy and suffers intensely from more-ism. Ecclesiastes 1:8 warns, “Everything leads to weariness—a weariness too great for words. Our eyes can never see enough to be satisfied; our ears can never hear enough.”  

When in doubt, open your Bible.  1 John 4:1 says, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”  Just like you give milk in your fridge the sniff test, give thoughts, ideas, and really everything, the Jesus litmus test.  As a wise man once said in Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.”

The Predestined Dairy Queen

My brother, his wife, my sister, and I took our Dad on a genealogy road trip.  Traveling with your adult siblings might not be on everyone’s bucket list, but we had a great and memorable time. Four months later, our Dad was gone.

While roaming the roads of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, Dad announced he wanted Dairy Queen for lunch and as the patriarch of the family - you get what you want.  No sooner than he announced this, my brother turned the corner and there was Dairy Queen!  Without thinking, I blurted out, “THANKS GOD!” To which my brother responded, “Oh yeah, like God just magically moved a Dairy Queen for us.”  “No,” I responded, “but He knew we were going to want one today!”

This led to further conversation around the campfire later.  My brother believes in God, but he also believes that God created us and then lets us roam the earth on our own accord without intervening.  In my mind's eye, I see God winding us up like those hopping mechanical toys, then setting us on the earth to hop around until the wind runs down.  I respect my brother greatly, but I don’t buy this line of thought for one second!

When Jesus was sending His disciples out to spread His teaching, He told them in Matthew 10: 29-30, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. 30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” 

Now to me, my brother’s viewpoint makes God very little and humans very big and I frankly don’t want that kind of responsibility! Now I know as the years pass, my brother doesn’t have as much hair as he used to, but I fully believe that he has not counted each hair on his head - but God has!  He and his wife enjoy feeding the birds on their back deck, but they don’t know each bird by name and they have no idea where they go or when they pass from the earth - but God does!

So, how could we even remotely try to shrink God into some careless puppet master? Because we want free will.  It is almost impossible to wrap our brains around the fact that God works so far up stream in our lives.  In fact, before we were even born, God designed His plan for each of us. Jeremiah 1:5 tells us, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.”

I hear you thinking, “Oh great, that must mean we are all predestined to live or suffer on this earth and there’s nothing we can do!” No, we aren’t stuck in our rut like a Hot Wheels race car, but what is predestined is that God wants us all to be in the Kingdom of Heaven with Him. Romans 8:29 says, “Those whom God had already chosen he also set apart to become like his Son, so that the Son would be the first among many believers.” He wants you to fulfill that predestination so much that  John 3:16 tells us, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” So, use your free will to accept that loving gift and ask Jesus into your heart as your Lord and Savior. 

But honestly, I am less interested in arguing the point of predestination vs free will as I am in arguing the point that Jesus spoke in Luke 22:42, “Yet not my will, but yours be done.” Jesus uttered those words when he knew that shortly He was going to be handed over to soldiers to be beaten and killed.  So, why should I find it so difficult to turn my daily life over to Him? If he cares about sparrows and the hairs on my head then He does actually care about my plans for each day! Do we hesitate because we want to choose to live in our desires that are a bit less than Godly? Paul the Apostle sure understood this when he said in Galatians 5:17, “For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.” 

Perhaps we should look at the Bible as a road map or an infallible GPS.  If the map says the Dairy Queen is to the left are you going to willfully go right? Paul said mostly like and I know I do, but even more likely is I didnt even consult the map at all and I find myself very lost, but that’s ok, because God is always with us if we ask! Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.”

That verse in Proverbs doesn’t say you have one shot to commit so if I get lost, I recommit again and again! Colossians 3:17 advises, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” So yes, imperfect as I am, I thank you God for John Fremont McCullough for founding Dairy Queen and for the folks that opened franchise #16159 so that on a hot day in July my dad could have his Dairy Queen lunch.

 

Laundry Day

It’s Monday and I’m doing laundry.  Why? Because I was taught that Monday was laundry day.  “Why Grandma? Why is Monday laundry day?”  “Because it’s the way we do it.”  When I got older Ma Ingalls helped me to understand why: 

“Each day had its own proper work.  Ma would say:  ’Wash on Monday, Iron on Tuesday, Mend on Wednesday, Churn on Thursday, Clean on Friday, Bake on Saturday, Rest on Sunday.’ ”

~ Little House in the Big Woods

So, I try. Life gets in the way and I can’t always get the laundry done on Monday and when I don’t  - I feel as though I am turning my back on a time honored tradition.  In Laura Ingalls and my grandma’s day, laundry wasn’t hit the start button, but an all (well three) day affair. Yet, it is also is a non-stop process because laundry is dirty before you even are finished with the current load! As you sit there reading this, those clothes you have on will be hitting the laundry eventually!  Some laundry is absolutely filthy (think construction, garden, cow yard, wet dog) and some is a little lighter, but in the end - laundry is laundry. And the fact is, you can add all the soap and fabric softener you want, but without water nothing happens…nothing is washed away.

Sin can be a bit like laundry.  Some sin is staining and deeply embedded and some is unintentional but ultimately like the laundry sin is sin and without the water it remains with us.  Wellhouse, a local church, gives people being baptized a shirt that reads, “Left it in the water.”  I love that imagery.  Just like the dirtiest of laundry, we too leave it behind in the water and not just on the day of our baptism, because sin is going to keep coming back at us like chocolate stains on the shirt you borrowed from your sister.

I didn't make the choice to get baptized until I was in my 50s! My parents had baptized aka christened me and I didn’t want to somehow belittle what they had done for me.  Then I came to understand that being baptized after the age of accountability is a public profession of faith and I am all for that! Jesus wasn’t sprinkled by Mary and Joseph, He got down in the Jordan River and got wet!  Jesus, He who was without sin, got baptized! Mark 1:9-11 paints the picture for us, “At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’”

Even as life changing as being baptized can be, it can’t keep us from sinning, because we will and we do. It is the grace of Jesus that erases those sins time and time again better than the best laundry stain remover.  And it’s ok! Just like we don’t wash our favorite t-shirt once and expect it to stay clean forever, we put it back in the wash water.  1 Peter 3:21 assures us, “and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

Still, baptism doesn’t save anymore than not being baptized will prevent you from being in Heaven. Ephesians 2:8-9 clearly tell us, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”  Yes, baptism is an important expression of your faith, a pledge-like vow similar to a wedding vow, but the first step to life everlasting is professing your belief in the Lord Jesus Christ and asking him in your heart.  You can do that! RIght here and now! Say:

Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior.

If you prayed that prayer for the first time, please let me know so I can celebrate with you and come alongside you for the journey.  And if you renewed your faith with that prayer and are ready to get wet, reach out to me-  I know people!

Best Year Ever!

 

Someone recently asked me, “What was your best year?” So what makes a best year? The year I was born? The year my children were born? The year I landed my dream job?

Naturally, I reviewed my life like a notable highlight reel. I thought of my days as a young girl spent blissfully on the back of my horse roaming and rambling the dense oak woods of our family farm. With arms spread wide, with a smile to match, face to sky in utter bliss, she could have never imagined what was still to come.

I pondered the flutter in my soul when meeting – the one. The explosion of love that erupted from my heart the moment I held my newborn son. That young mother could never have imagined there would be enough room to love even more when my daughter was born.  And when a mother turned to grandmother, there was yet another trajectory adventure!

They say when the date of your birthday matches the age you are turning – it’s your golden birthday and the year that follows is supposed to be your best year.  Given that logic, no one past the age of 31 would have a best year! So, is it possible that every year can be your best year to date?

My golden birthday was when I turned 23. I was in the middle of a Saudi Arabian desert serving in the United States Army. We were caught in a once-a-century flashflood and I spent the day digging trenches to drain the desert. Perhaps not the most fun birthday – definitely not like the year I turned 6 and my parents threw me a surprise birthday party - but certainly a very memorable birthday.

That year went on with highs and lows. A most notable high was returning stateside to be reunited with my husband on our 1^st anniversary! A notable low was returning with lung damage that ended my military career. Each dawn ushers in an accumulation of days that quietly multiply into a year -each one dripping with unknown promise and yes, each year, the low tides have come with their loss and heartache.

Historian and 20^th Century writer, Alice Morse Earle wrote, “Every day may not be good... but there's something good in every day.”  I challenge us to see our years in this way too. Like ocean waves, there will be best moments at the high tide and the harder, worst, least, lean times at low tide. Still, each depends on the other as the waves never return to the shore in exactly the same way.  We too never end the day in the same way as we started. Therefore, the person you are today is distinctly different than who you were on January 1^st and not who you will be on December 31^st.

Although we are constantly changing, Hebrews 13:8 tells us, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”  Jesus is our rock that cannot erode. He is our lighthouse that cannot be lost. We don’t have to be stuck in the low tides of life because Jesus already washed us clean. His renewal simply waits for you to ask! The love He felt for you on the day He died on the cross is the same love He felt walking out of the grave and is the same incredible love He feels for you when you come to Him broken from being rolled in the waves or giddy from playing all day in sonshine.

So, I believe I would have to say, most certainly, that my best year to date ….is the one that is still to come…and the one after that….and after that… until Jesus returns to take me home!

Hey Jelly Roll?

 

Hey Jelly Roll, FFDP?

 

Ok let’s be clear right up front, I am not randomly picking on Jelly Roll or Five Finger Death Punch. They are just the two I have experience with and yes, I do listen to them.  I’ve been listening to FFDP since they first were on MySpace. Yup, I said it My. Space.  I’ve seen them in concert and I was due to see Jelly Roll, but can’t (story for another day.)  Yep, it’s true, I don’t always listen to Christian music although it is so easy to because of the wide spread scope of music genres these days. There is no longer a one size fits all Christian music scene. With groups like Richlin, Demon Hunter, and Rivers & Robots, you can go from coffee house to bringing down the house in a click!  Still, I step out of that zone because frankly I enjoy Jelly Roll’s sound and the heavy music of FFDP, sometimes, until I don’t.  

I was recently reading an article about Jelly Roll acknowledging a veteran in the audience of a concert. Not only did he recognize him, but gave a lifetime pass for any future Jelly Roll concerts! Super cool, despite me wondering how many other veterans in the crowd were thinking, “Well <expletive> Shoulda worn my hat tonight!”  Still, super cool!

FFDP makes entire videos highlighting serious causes like veteran homelessness, mental health needs, and suicide. This shows me a real and deep level of respect for other people.  I think, “Wow, what a power houses these guys could be for Jesus!”  I’m not saying ditch the label and go full on Christian music, but is it possible you are doing more harm than good, because in both cases they misuse the name of God.  I don’t mean in a 3^rd commandment sort of way. I mean speaking for God in a way God would never speak.   Get your facts straight guys, because people are listening!  You could be hurting the very people you want to be helping.

This stuff matters, it really does. Like I said, people are listening and they need hope not hopelessness!  Music touches people deeply and I find it irresponsible to propagate misinformation which creates hopelessness. Hopelessness is a killer.  Think I’m making this up? Have you heard the term deaths of despair? Not depths but deaths! A National Library of Medicine article states,

The term deaths of despair comes from Princeton economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton, who set out to understand what accounted for falling U.S. life expectancies. They learned that the fastest rising death rates among Americans were from drug overdoses, suicide, and alcoholic liver disease. Deaths from these causes have increased between 56% and 387%, depending on the age cohort, over the past two decades, averaging 70,000 per year.

 

You could argue that music is just a form of entertainment and not a message, but music affects our limbic system. It literally makes that part of our brain’s network react! That’s why music can amp you up or calm you down or put you to sleep or make you cry. Music is a message! Here’s an example:  Third Day wrote a song called I Need a Miracle.  They wrote it because they met a family after a concert whose son intended on committing suicide and went to the woods, but his radio was stuck on a Third Day song called Cry Out to Jesus. The man couldn’t go through with his plans and went home to live! Cry Out to Jesus was written about a family that lost a son. Tragedy happens, but Third Day saved a son by writing hope into a tragedy of a lost son.

I want to love FFDP’s song Wrong Side of Heaven, but I can’t it because of a huge error! I’m not addressing the whole female role of God, but the falsehood is that God is ashamed of us. The notion that God would ever be ashamed of us for doing what is right is the most hopeless message you could deliver in a song dedicated to veterans that desperately need hope!! You can’t just roll the organizations willing to help in the end credits of your video! They need to hear hope from you! Your words need to speak life! The radio doesn’t scroll silent credits!

Ask Mission 22 to fact check about the 22 veterans that commit suicide every day. I’m a Desert Storm Army veteran.  That part of the song cuts me every time I hear it and I can’t unhear it. Fellow soldiers, we were put in some unthinkably ugly places by a devil that prowls the earth but we did it. Don’t be ashamed of that and don’t let anyone project their shame of not answering the call on us! 1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”  Think of how we said, “Stay alert, stay alive!” and we stood up for right against that roaring killer. Ephesians 6:12 says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Again, never forget that we answered that call.  We may have done things we didn’t want to, didn’t mean to, and can’t forget, but that could never EVER make God ashamed!

FFDP my brothers in arms need light and hope not a lie saying the Almighty Creator of their very being is ashamed of them! Mark 8:38 says, “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” That means in this broken world if your sole aka 1 purpose is to deny God’s soul purpose on your life and live in the most debauched way possible then you have turned your back to Jesus and His gift of eternal life. People that willingly gave up security, comfort, freedom, family, and home to fight for others – flat out NO WAY – no shame there. Note the incredible amount of warriors that are in the Old Testament!

FFDP rocks the world with a suicide prevention song, Coming Down and the video is chilling, but when the lyrics cry, “Does anyone hear my final prayers?” the question goes unanswered. YES! Jesus heard every prayer. 1 John 5:14 answers this question! “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” Does a lack of an answer to the question leave people believing the answer was no! My heart breaks that people are gravitating to this song in crisis, but not given the only real and true solution. JESUS! He actually answered this question himself in John 14:6, “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life.’”

FFDP’s song Wash It All Away asks:

I'm wasting here

Can anyone

Wash it all away?

I'm waiting here

For anyone

To wash it all away

Wash it all away!

Well, duh! Yeah, Jesus!  Acts 22:16 gives my favorite answer to this, “And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.” If I am riding with my husband, we never make it through this song, because I can’t stop answering, “Yes, Jesus! You need Jesus!” and he hits skip. Sorry not sorry, babe.

I could go on, but I don’t want Jelly Roll to feel neglected in my unsolicited advice. Jelly Roll has Son of a Sinner. He says,

Might pop a pill and smoke and maybe drink

Talk to God and tell Him what I think

At first He's gonna hate me

But eventually He'll save me

So let’s break this down. God isn’t your first choice to fix things. You’ll turn to him after pills and smokes and drinks don’t work. Well, at least he admits none of that crap is useful, but the part that makes my head explode is that Jelly Roll says God will hate me but eventually save me! Pass me my John 3:16 sign, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Don’t get me wrong, God hates sin! It keeps you from living your best life, and He hates it because the best life is what He wants for you because He loves you so incomprehensibly much! Romans 8:38-39 says, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So, then Jelly Roll you go on to break my heart again with Save Me!  Dude, the pills, the drinking, the smoking, didn’t work before why keep returning?  You know the quote by Werner Erhard, “'Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” Side note: Albert Einstein is wrongly tagged for saying this. See what a little fact checking can do?? I’m also here to tell you no one is damaged beyond repair. Seriously, a thief was hanging on the cross right next to Jesus they were dying together and Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise” in Luke 23:43. Let’s sit down sometime and talk about the artist formally known as Saul, but we know him as Paul today. (If you’re curious about this transformation check out Acts 9!)  Lastly, the title alone says it all – Save Me – ok Jesus will! Titus 3:5 says, “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.” You don’t have to come to Him in perfect working order to be saved! Just ask!! Pray this!

Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior.

I hope you prayed that prayer if you haven’t before especially you Jelly Roll! Is it in the name of a record label and the belief you need to keep people miserable to sell? Like the news, if it bleeds if it leads? I don’t know, but it makes my heart hurt for people spiraling into hopelessness. These are just two big names, big labels that I know from personal experience that are perpetuating using the name of God in a way that belittles our Creator and inaccurately portrays His Mighty Power. In a world where people are obsessing over clean living, what goes into your mind is as important as what is fed through the mouth! I’m guilty, I’ve supported their music.  If I boycotted them, zero people would notice. Correction, my husband would notice. I honestly don’t have a good solution other than to say, “Hey Jelly Roll, FFDP! Fact check your lyrics! PLEASE! I’ll help you!” I’ll continue to be praying on this for sure! God can move mountains, one day if I pray hard enough Jelly Roll and FFDP just might be winning Dove awards!

Holey Rocks or Holy Rock?

On a recent visit to the ocean, I found a rock with a perfect hole through it.  As I picked it up, I thought this wasn’t the first time finding one.  Sure enough, when I got home, I found it hanging forgotten by the window.  I had put it on a string, hung it, and promptly forgot about it. There is a Celtic Legend about holey stones, these stones with a perfect hole worn all the way through it.  Legend says that only good luck can pass through the hole because it was created by moving water and moving water is impervious to magic or spells. So, I had hung it by the window like a farmer hanging a horseshoe over a barn door. Legend goes on to say that you don’t find a holey stone, they find you and if one is broken, then it saved a life.  

I admit I enjoy the heritage of my Celtic ancestors. The fanciful side of me creates fairy houses, makes wishes on dandelions, and searches for four leaf clovers. Yet in reality, I am less inclined to place my life in the hands of a stone, even if it “found me” because I know that Jesus is my true rock and foundation. 1 Samuel 2:2 says, “There is no Rock like our God.” Breaking down the legend and comparing it to Jesus is easy! Jesus the living water is truly impervious to evil. John 7:38 tells us, “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” When Jesus saved my life by dying on the cross, stones were broken. Matthew 27:51 says, "The earth shook, the rocks split .”  Then, three days later a stone was rolled away announcing His glorious resurrection!! Luke 24:2 tells us, “They found the stone rolled away from the tomb.” 

Honestly, I could go on and on with the comparisons! So, consider this if you will. Some of the holey stone legends pre-date Jesus’ birth.  There are different names for the stones on practically every continent yet the alleged powers are all very similar. Is it possible our ancient ancestors were searching to explain the unknown? Something they knew they were missing, but hadn’t heard about yet? Deep inside every human heart is an innate desire to be one with Jesus. Whether you are willing to admit that or not, it's true.  He just waits for you.   Revelation 3:20 says, “Look! I have been standing at the door, and I am constantly knocking. If anyone hears me calling him and opens the door, I will come in and fellowship with him and he with me.” 

We have a luxury that some of those ancient ancestors didn’t have and even some people of today don’t have. Jesus asked his followers (including me) in Matthew 28:19-20, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” So, if you are reading this, then you have heard His word and all that searching to fill your empty space can end right now! Simply pray: 

Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. 

If you prayed that for the first time, please let me know so we can rejoice together.  I may have two holey rocks hanging by my window, but I don’t believe in their power.  They do however remind me that my world is waiting to hear about my Holy Rock.