Who is Jake Phelps?

Who is Jake Phelps? And why is he tagging my neighbor’s fence?  While I don’t actually know Jake Phelps, I know OF Jake Phelps.  He is one of the 86% of American youths that would rather be famous than go to school, get a job, become a doctor, lawyer, or astronaut. That is a 32% increase since 2010. 

It would be easy to blame social media for this upswing, but that isn’t truly the case. Social media may provide a new venue, but only 9% of Americans work in a “fame” industry. That’s just the industry, that does NOT equate to being famous so even with social media the odds aren’t in your favor. 

Faced with the choice of anonymity or the chance at recognition of some kind, people are literally dying to be famous. This reminds me of Young Guns, the 1988 action/western film, when Billy the Kid laughs hysterically prior to murdering someone and cackles, “I’ll make ya famous.” If that even had one hint of truth to it, we would know his victims instead of Billy the Kid. 

 

In the early 1980s, a man attempted to assassinate two former Presidents in order to impress a famous actress and “level-up” to her notoriety.  So we see this isn’t a new problem, but sitting in the wake of yet another school shooting, it is a problem worthy of being readdressed. And frankly, guns aren’t the problem, it’s the people pulling the trigger that are the problem.

An Institute for Violence Prevention study concluded, “Many of our insights have come from analyzing the violent fantasies of adolescent shooters. These imaginings take root in a desperate mind that yearns for recognition. Often these young assassins are inspired by examples set by previous shooters. The fantasies typically intensify over a number of years before they are acted on. With time, the mental images become more detailed, and they often become buttressed by a distorted sense of what is just or moral, such as the need to avenge a perceived offense or the belief in a divine right to decide the fate of others.”

In a fast food must have right now society, people forget to look at the consequences of their actions.  They fail to see, it's not a movie, they don’t actually have divine authority and these fantasies never have a happy ending!  In reality, they end with death or at best incarceration. And sadly, if they actually achieved this desperately sought after fame, it wouldn’t or couldn’t even live up to expectations created in the mind. Ecclesiastes 1:8 says, “All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.” George Sanders was famous. He had 4 incredibly glamorous wives and even won an Oscar. Yet he committed suicide and in his note he stated, “I am bored.”  

People want to be seen, to be heard, to know they matter and that their life has a purpose, but fame doesn’t and can’t provide that - GOD DOES.

He sees you: 

Matthew 10:29-31

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

He hears you:

Psalm 18:6

“In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.

He has a plan and a purpose for you:

Jeremiah 29:11

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”

With God kicked out of school and so many public places, what can we do to get the Word out? Well naturally, this is something that first starts in the home. Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.”  May your child be a light in a dark place!  

But there are so many homes where God is not welcome yet, what else can we do?  As tempting as it may seem, we cannot force feed the Word, but we can set such a loving example that it would be impossible to not notice that something is different. Be willing to share without concern of earthly opinion and be a conduit of Jesus.  Stop! Look! Listen to what and who He is asking you to reach out to! Don’t let Jake Phelps trade his spray paint for a weapon!

Compliment a stranger - I see you. Comment on a social media post - I hear you. And perhaps hardest of all, be ready to pause your plans. Don’t be so focused on your to-do pick-list that you ignore the nudge from Jesus to stop and spend a moment with a person so that they will know - Jesus says...You Matter!!

Got Gifts?

Gifts.  About 250 BILLION dollars is spent in the United States on advertising with 1.9 billion being exclusively for Christmas gifts.  No wonder we feel the pressure to find the perfect gift to give to the people we love, those we appreciate in service industries, teachers, etc, and for people we just feel obligated to include.  I’ve seen posts reminding us to live in the moment and the true gift is making memories and years later your kids won’t remember the gifts they receive.  I don’t disagree, but at the risk of sending anyone into a panic, I do remember some of the gifts I received as a kid. 

When I was 11, my dad gave me a ladies golf hat with a little puff ball on the top! As if being 11 isn’t hard enough?? Another year, I remember getting scotch tape in my stocking. That felt almost like coal! But the one that sticks with me the most is the Sunshine Family Doll set and house.  Ohhhhh, how I wanted that.  I knew it was way out of Mom’s price range, but I pleaded my case with Santa.  It was the counterculture reaction to Barbie. The mom in her prairie dress, the dad in his corduroys and turtleneck sweater, and the cute little baby all living in their very modest four room house. Very unlike Barbie and her mansion. Racing out of my bedroom that Christmas morning, I stopped in my tracks not believing my eyes - there it was!!!!  As an adult, I’m not sure who helped my mom (grandparents I’m guessing) to get me that remarkable gift that I loved to literal pieces.

I am not telling you these stories to glorify commercialism, but to show it isn’t the quantity of the gifts, but the quality.   The actual quality isn’t tied to the monetary value, but in the love that backs up the gift.  The Wise Men brought three gifts. Just three.  There was no Christmas tree piled high with the latest and greatest things, but three items to worship a King. I’ve seen an internet meme that indicates if it had been wise women they would have brought diapers and formula and things that a new mom would really need. I can actually imagine the look on Joseph and Mary’s faces when the Wise Men showed up with their gifts. “Ohhh, how lovely….burial spices… what every two year old wishes for!” 

Sometimes, we don’t get what we want, but what we need. I didn’t like Dad’s hat, but in his mind, he was protecting me from sunburn. Matthew 2:13 tells us, “When they [the Wise Men] had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up,’he said, ‘take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.’”  Suddenly, these impractical royal gifts were vital to protecting the young Jesus.

I may have felt disappointment in receiving scotch tape, it wasn’t what I was expecting. But in reality, I blasted through that stuff while making my kid projects.  That gift provided me a means to create and give of myself far beyond my expectations.  1 Peter 4:10 states, “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” At that time, the Hebrew people were expecting a Savior that would protect them from Roman rule, but what they got was a helpless baby.  Their expectations did not match the gift given, but ultimately, Jesus was and is a Savior far beyond a political leader.  His life was a living, breathing, walking example of faith and grace.

The Sunshine Family sticks with me not because it was the most amazing toy, but that it was such a sacrificial gift. A gift I knew my mom couldn’t afford, but she loved me so much she found a way to give it to me. Her income levels could ebb and flow, but her love never waivered. God does not suffer from a limited bank account and His gifts are endless. James 1:17 confirms this by saying, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”  

But all He extravagantly gives to us pales next to His son Jesus, the ultimate gift.  Is there any gift more sacrificial than His own perfect Son? John 3:16, reminds us, “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.” God didn’t give us a world full of His sons, just One. Quality over quantity.

Oh To Be Christie Just One Christmas!

I have been very blessed to have a friend for my entire life. No, seriously. Christie and I have been friends since before we can even remember!  We went to Sunday School together, started kindergarten together, and graduated high school together.  We have joked that we could hack each other’s accounts because we know all the answers to the security questions!  She is a rare treasure that still manages to keep our high school class together after <hem-hem > many years.

If you know me at all, you know exactly where this is leading, because I have been telling this tale for a long time! One of my earliest memories is watching Christie being dressed in the angel costume.  Oh, how I longed to be the one wearing the shining gold garland halo sporting the long flowing angel robe with the equally impressive flowing sleeves.  But no - my mom was helping me into a blue sheet because after all a girl named Mary should play the role of Mary.  I sat on my chair holding a baby doll all the while coveting the freedom and sparkles of my dancing friend, Christie. 

In reality, I’m not sure how many consecutive years this went on, but it seemed like every Christmas to me.  I have harbored these feelings and told this story to practically everyone I know. Christmas programs, I’m still drawn to the glittering parts. Still, it does occur to me how all the time I’ve spent longing for the sparkle of Christmas, I have totally missed what an incredible honor it was to play the role of <helloooo!!!???> The.mother.of.JESUS!?

Luke 1: 27-29 says, “The angel went to a virgin promised in marriage to a descendant of David named Joseph. The virgin’s name was Mary. When the angel entered her home, he greeted her and said, ‘You are favored by the Lord! The Lord is with you.’ She was startled by what the angel said and tried to figure out what this greeting meant.”  It continues in verse 38 with, “Mary answered, ‘I am the Lord’s servant. Let everything you’ve said happen to me.’ Then the angel left her.”

The real Mary doesn’t seem as sarcastic as I can be, because I’m pretty sure my response would have been - “WAIT! SAY WHAT??”  Which is also why God didn’t choose me to be the real Mary!  I also wonder if Mary ever questioned being the recipient of this honor.  When she was trying to explain her “condition” to Joseph, when she had to leave for Bethlehem heavy with child, when she had to let her son fulfill God’s will on the cross. Perhaps she did, but if she wavered, her words from Luke 1:29 seem to echo back, “Let everything you’ve said happen to me.”  You see, she humbly and gratefully accepted the role God had for her.  

Founder of Going Beyond Ministries Priscilla Shirer says, “Contentment comes from valuing what you’ve been given, not venting over what’s been withheld.”  Can you imagine my outlook all these years, if I had reveled in the privilege of being “The Mary?” Can you ask for a better role model of faith? 

So, this Christmas my challenge to myself, and to you, is to be content.  1 Corinthians 12:17-19 says, “If the whole body were just an eye, how could it hear? And if it were only an ear, how could it smell? As it is, however, God put every different part in the body just as he wanted it to be. There would not be a body if it were all only one part!”  There would not have been a Christmas program nativity if we were all playing the part of the angels!  Each part, each kid actually had an important message to announce.  Even more so the parts played on the night of Jesus’ birth! Sure, the angels were glorious in their light and all those “Harks!” But when it came down to it, God chose the lowly, dirty, sweaty, smelly, hard working, toiling, and often forgotten shepherds to deliver the Good News of our Savior's birth!

Colossians 3:17 confirms that God is asking us to be content with the role He gives us to carry out. “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.”  While I will always be enamored of sparkling parts of Christmas, I vow to rewrite my story and share how I am grateful to have played the role of Mary and my friend, Christie, made a beautiful Angel.

Is There Really a Period?

As I note the one year anniversary of the passing of my father, it’s snowing in much the same way it did on the day of his funeral -a puffy quiet Hallmark movie kind of snow.  It is peaceful and I am reminded of the verse Philippians 4:7, “and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”  I miss my Dad so dearly, but I feel this Biblical peace that helps me super glue the ragged edges of my heart wound.  There is a period at the end of his life or is there?

I’ve spent this week preparing a special family project. In an interview I was asked about my life, but I spent far much more time talking about my family, my dad, my brother, my great uncles, my great great grandfather, my great great great great grandfather. 

In this time of preparation for Christmas, we often bake cookies. The recipe my daughter-in-law makes for her children comes from their great great great grandmother.  If we have and share memories, is there really a period at the end of life?

We know that Jesus promises us eternal life because He is the Son of God and Emmanuel, God is with us. So, why then was it so important for Him to have an earthly family, humans that passed away? Why do we even know about Joseph and Mary? I think God found it very important. The Old Testament is full of genealogies, but in the New Testament Luke and Matthew record the genealogy of Jesus - 14 generations worth! It is important for Jesus in order to realize how much prophecy his birth and life fulfilled.

Depending on how prophecy is counted and who is counting, Jesus fulfilled between 

200 to 400 prophecies in His earthly life, no less than eight of those being fulfilled on the day he was born. 

According to an article from Empower International, “After examining only eight different prophecies, they conservatively estimated that the chance of one man fulfilling all eight prophecies was one in 10^17. To illustrate how large the number 10^17 is (a figure with 17 zeros), the professor gave this illustration: If you mark one of ten tickets, and place all the tickets in a hat, and thoroughly stir them, and then ask a blindfolded man to draw one, his chance of getting the right ticket is one in ten. Suppose that we take 10^17 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They’ll cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up the one silver dollar that has the special mark on it. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would’ve had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time.”

And that was just the probabilities for 8 prophecies - Jesus fulfilled hundreds!  But my Dad? As far as I know, there wasn’t a single prophecy about him. So why?  The Wise Men went to the King’s palace to look for Jesus because He was the King of Kings, but instead, He came to us as one of us. There were no experiences on earth that we have that He didn’t experience. Poverty, hunger, exhaustion, pain, joy, love - the most important of these - love.  We share our memories, our heritage, our ancestry to solidify our community and within community we are able to fulfill not a prophecy, but the greatest commandment that Jesus left us. John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you.”  Love - it connects us and it transcends time and space. I don’t love my dad any less than I did a year ago. So with love, no life ends in a period. Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith and the greatest example of love made sure of that and has given us the longest run on sentence for all eternity.

This Is M.E .

As Veterans Day draws closer each year, I start to reminisce about my experiences in the United States Army a little bit more than on average.  Depending on your source for research, the ratio for overcoming a negative interaction is 3:1, 5:1, or even as much as 10:1! Ten positive affirmations to overcome one negative interaction!  

I can’t argue with that research, because do I think of the awards, promotions, the well-dones? No, I think of a time when I was assigned to a work detail in Saudi Arabia and of course it was hurry up and wait.  As I waited, I was talking with “the guys.” I was sharing about my husband also being somewhere unknown in the desert too.  I took the photo of us from my wallet and showed it to them. One man asked, “Who is that with him?” I said, “That’s me!”  He replied skeptically, “What the hell happened to you?”

Well, buddy let me tell ya….

The obvious response would have been, “Listen, Dude, you’ve been deployed to the desert, same as me for months now without a hot shower and trust me you aren’t looking all that hot in your kevlar helmet and flak vest either!” Sure, I told myself I certainly wasn’t sporting photo make-up and let’s not forget to mention the Army issued glasses that were very much like those thick unbreakable glasses my mom got me in the 4th grade!  Still, his words cut deep into a wound that it would seem has been open for most of my life.

Insecure from an early age and prone to compare myself with others, I was very self conscious about the moles on my face.  Beauty marks my mom would say, but I disagreed.  My insecurities were magnified by the divorce of my parents and then middle school years are hard for everyone. I remember having to walk down the hallway past a class full of high school boys that would wait and heckle us as we traversed the “gauntlet” just to get to our lockers.  They had a way of pointing out physical flaws that most of the time I didn’t even know what they meant and was way too embarrassed to ask anyone.  Time has a way of educating us on those topics.

In high school and college, I struggled to find identity in places where it wouldn’t be found. I tried to find it in self deprecating humor, the bottle, and dangerous behaviors.  It's so sad to me that all that time my identity was secure and waiting for me to claim.  Even though I attended church and was confirmed - it was as though the promises the Bible held were for the good people not the ugly sinners like me.  Could God actually love me if I wasn’t beautiful and certainly didn’t have it all together?

I remember walking to church on a Sunday morning after a stereotypical college Saturday night, beating myself up and half thinking I would burst into flames upon entering the church doors.  Still, I was drawn to go because my heart knew there was a truth. A truth that all these years later I still fight myself to claim because the evil one knows exactly where that weak spot in my armor is.  With practice and God’s persistence, I am ready to say, “I am beautiful in the eyes of the Lord and that is all that matters!”  My extra pounds aren’t going to magically fall from my body overnight and the wrinkles and gray hair will keep coming, but that's ok, because I truly know that I am the M.E. - the Mary Elizabeth that God loved so much that he created me to be here today right now. 

Psalm 34:5 affirms me by saying, “Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.” On my bathroom mirror I wrote, “Be the person GOD sees!!” It appears most clearly with the steam of a shower when I stand figuratively and literally in the vulnerable nakedness of life. It solidifies my life goal of Galatians 1:10, “Does this sound as if I am trying to win human approval? No indeed! What I want is God's approval! Am I trying to be popular with people? If I were still trying to do so, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

My favorite picture of me is the one I refer to as Dandelion Girl.  In my mind's eye, this is me.  In reality, I was happily picking dandelions with no care in the world but to live in the moment with Dad and present him with my gift when he took the photo. Matthew 18:3 says, “I assure you that unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven.” My soul is Dandelion Girl and she dances with abandon in praise and worship before the Lord with no thought other than to be in the moment and please Him!

If you have ever fought a negative assault or negative notions about yourself, I am leaving you with 10 positive Godly affirmations to wipe out the earthly negative.

1) Genesis 1:27  - So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

2) Psalm 139:14 -  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

3) Luke 12:7 -  Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

4) Ephesians 2:10 -  For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

5) 1 Samuel 16:7  - But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

6) Ecclesiastes 3:11  - He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

7) Proverbs 31:30 -  Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

8) Proverbs 3:15 -  She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her.

9) Song of Solomon 4:1 - Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful.

and my favorite!

10) Romans 8: 38-39 - 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.

Why So Stubborn?

Did you know that the public can adopt horses and burros from the Bureau of Land Management?  As a means to create healthy population numbers, there is a round-up and in a random selection some animals are returned to the wild and some are kept for adoption.  I know this because my father and I adopted two burros.  After some patient interaction, they seemed to enjoy life with predictable food and shelter. One of the burros, Chocolate, was going to live at my acreage.  Only one mile away, it seemed like an easy walk, but Chocolate was not having any of this leading business.  Try as I might to pull, coax, persuade, she would lock her knees and dig in her hooves.  I finally found success in walking behind her almost like driving a cart, but there was no cart.  Her stubbornness reminds me of a story in 2 Kings.

Naaman, the commander of the Syrian army suffered from the horrible deadly disease of leprosy. 2 Kings 5: 2-8 tells us his story, 

“In one of their raids against Israel, the Syrians had carried off a little Israelite girl, who became a servant of Naaman's wife. One day she said to her mistress, ‘I wish that my master could go to the prophet who lives in Samaria! He would cure him of his disease.’ When Naaman heard of this, he went to the king and told him what the girl had said. The king said, ‘Go to the king of Israel and take this letter to him.’

So Naaman set out, taking thirty thousand pieces of silver, six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of fine clothes. The letter that he took read: ‘This letter will introduce my officer Naaman. I want you to cure him of his disease.’ When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes in dismay and exclaimed, ‘How can the king of Syria expect me to cure this man? Does he think that I am God, with the power of life and death? It's plain that he is trying to start a quarrel with me!’ When the prophet Elisha heard what had happened, he sent word to the king: ‘Why are you so upset? Send the man to me, and I'll show him that there is a prophet in Israel!’”

Naaman does go to Elisha, but Elisha sends a messenger out to tell him to wash himself seven times in the Jordan River and he will be healed.  Naaman is furious, claiming that the rivers in Syria are superior and he rants and raves about the expectations he had for the way this healing should happen. After all, he had brought silver, gold, fine clothes to pay his way! But Naaman wasn’t the commander of this operation - God was. 

2 Kings 5: 13,14 continues with, 

“His servants went up to him and said, ‘Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something difficult, you would have done it. Now why can't you just wash yourself, as he said, and be cured?’ So Naaman went down to the Jordan, dipped himself in it seven times, as Elisha had instructed, and he was completely cured. His flesh became firm and healthy like that of a child.” 

Naaman wants to pay Elisha for the miracle, but  Elisha refuses.  Naaman felt compelled to make things harder than they really were. Just like Chocolate, if she would have simply followed the directions we would have had an easy walk.

So often we are like that with the invitation Jesus gives us for eternal life.  It seems too easy. We think we need to earn it, but we can’t. Ephesians 2:8 reminds us, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” We are conditioned as cynical people to think, “If it’s too good to be true, it probably is…”  Yet, this invitation is unequivocally the most true offer in all eternity.  

People feel as though they have to wait until they are fixed, or worthy, or until they have “paid their dues.”  That’s just digging in your hooves and being stubborn, because you will never earn salvation, be worthy (as in sin-free) of salvation, and the whole reason to accept Jesus is for the broken parts to be fixed.  If I sliced my arm wide open, I don’t wait for it to heal and then go to the doctor for stitches!  Pastor Levi Lusko illustrates this so well when he said, “Jesus cleans His fish AFTER He catches them!”

Romans 10:9 says, “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” That’s it! That’s all there is to it - receive simply receive! So, why are we so stubborn to accept what is so freely and graciously offered?  Accepting Jesus is even easier than washing in a river or unlocking your stubborn knees.  You 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.

See? Wasn’t that easy?  If you prayed that prayer for the first time, I’m so excited for all the possibilities you have just unlocked in your life. Please let me know, I’d love to come alongside you and celebrate your adoption into the family of God!

Who Are You?

 

On a crisp fall day in 1905, a young cowboy walked into the Sisters Saloon and asked if any ranches were looking for help to wean their fall calves. He was given a few names and brief directions of where to go.  No one asked his name, no one saw which direction on the Santiam wagon road he had come.

They did however watch him leave.  Perhaps he paused to check his horse’s hoof because of the nasty lava rock along the trail.  Maybe he dropped something and bent to pick it up, we will never know because all that was seen was a swift and fatal kick from his horse straight in the man’s face leaving him unrecognizable in his death.

The townspeople rallied around the stranger and gave him a proper burial and to this day friendly folk still make sure there are flowers on his grave (plastic or not.) But he didn’t have a stitch of anything on him that would let them know who he was. No letter, no name engraved on a Barlow knife - nothing.

The keeper at the saloon wished he had taken the time to at least ask for the fella’s name before hurrying on to paying customers. There was no next of kin he could notify, no sad letter he could write to Mother.  On the reverse, was there a mother anxiously waiting for a letter she would never receive? Were the last words they exchanged harsh? Was she regretting the way they had parted? Was the cowboy on the run from the law? Did he regret decisions that lead him to be far from home in an unknown land? Was he… there are infinite questions, infinite possibilities for regret that remain unanswered here on earth.

This story could seem hopeless, but Jesus knew who Cowboy was and welcomed him by name into heaven! Jesus offers all of us an eternal community where everyone knows your name without introduction! Ephesians 1:5 tells us, “God had already decided that through Jesus Christ he would make us his children—this was his pleasure and purpose.” Psalm 100:5 says, “For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”

Jesus tells us that we never have to live in a world of regret, but one filled with grace and mercy. Isaiah 43:25 confirms this by saying, “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”

He also wants to protect us from the biggest regret we could possibly make and that is not accepting Him as Lord. Romans 6:23 warns, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” And salvation is the greatest gift you could receive! It is the culmination of the ultimate example of love, combined with grace, forgiveness, and mercy that you simply receive and can’t possibly earn! Ephesians 2:8-9 confirms, “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.”

The great evangelist Billy Graham said, “I have never known anyone to accept Christ’s redemption and later regret it.”  So if you are ready to leave a world of regrets behind, 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.

If you prayed that prayer today Ephesians 2:19 tells you, “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household." So my friend - Welcome to the family!