Wonderful Jesus!

Social Media and the Believer-Part 1

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Proverbs 18:2 NIV

Social media has become a major outlet for people today. Where in times past, one would have to leave this earth without anyone having none they existed, social media has given millions the opportunity to be heard and even to be known.

This blog is from a teaching I presented to our church and I thought it would great to share it today in my blog:

Being on the Cutting Edge:

The Church has always been interested in being on the cutting edge of technology in order to share the gospel. In both the Old and New Testaments, the word of God was put to print with “modern” technology of that day. When Martin Luther was living, he used the moveable type printing press to get God’s word into the hands of common people, like us, calling the printing press “the highest act of God’s grace.”

As time moves into the nineteenth century other forms of media become popular and men and women of God use them to spread the gospel. Aimee Semple McPherson used the radio broadcast to share the message of the cross, as did others. And everyone has heard of or seen a Billy Graham Crusade on television.

And now we have computers and the internet. As an educator I had to have those conversations with our students about how to use technology and social media responsibly. They even have a name for it: digital citizenship. And one day in conversation with our pastors, I brought up the need for our church to have that conversation and this teaching was a result of it.

As the above scripture mentioned: Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions.

That’s social media in a nutshell. A lot of individuals are out there sharing their opinions and gaining little if no understanding in the process, and even worst-not sharing any understanding. Especially our young people. But as citizens of the kingdom of God, we need to be responsible in what we say, write, post, or share in any venue. And especially on social media because once it hits the airwaves, it’s out there!

When the television was invented, many Christians spoke against the use of the television in Christian homes and many speak against social media for Christians today. I don’t agree with either opinion. I believe God the Holy Spirit uses the television to “tell the vision” of the kingdom and uses social media to “to socially communicate” the gospel in ways that formal preaching and teaching may not be able to do.

With the use of such a powerful tool of expression comes some responsibilities:

Many Christians (and non-Christians) feel empowered by social media, believing that they now have a voice to say the things online that they may not have a chance to say in their face to face encounters with people, so being responsible includes choosing your words carefully. Before you hit the send button, reread what you are sharing because it is a reflection of you, and in the church world, a reflection of Jesus and His Church!
Social media, (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Pinterest, to name a few) gives us that voice and the opportunity to be creative. Some people have actually made a career of posting themselves and their talents or antics. Many have done outrageous things to get “hits” and “followers” on social media. The focus of the Christian should be to glorify Him in all that we do, not to see how many followers we can gain.
I remember how stressful twitter became for me as I used to sit around thinking, “what creative or witty thing” can I post now? I eventually let it and facebook go because they required more attention than I was willing to give to them. So don’t spend more time on social media than you do with the Lord in the reading and studying of His word and in prayer.
The world (Satan) has a plan for social media, and God has a plan; let’s get on His page with the intent to share our faith positively that we might draw the world to Him. Use it for fun and entertainment, but not at the expense of being used by the devil!
On social media, we are called to be a witness that Jesus is real and reigns supreme in our lives, just as we are called to do that in the physical world in which we live. Please don’t tell the world that you are a Christian while posting vile and profane things on your pages, it sends the wrong message and it doesn’t bring glory to the Father! Wonderful Jesus!

The Believer and Secular Music

Ecclesiastes 7:5 – It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools.

I have been teaching for the past couple of weeks on the Christian and secular music. It’s been an interesting dialogue with the members of our church.

One of the things I pointed out to the people is that whether you listen to secular music or Christian music, it is very important to listen to the message. Any message that is anti-Christ or biblical principles should be left alone, even if it is under the guise of Christian music. As Solomon said many millennials ago: it’s better to be rebuked than to listen to the song of fools.

The Bible says that the fool has said in his heart that there is no God. (Psalm 53:1) Looking at this verse, it makes me wonder if Solomon was implying that listening to the songs of a person who has said in their heart that there is no God is not wise. After all, if a fool doesn’t believe in God, then he certainly has no qualms about what he writes and sings about.

Secular music is defined simply as music that is not written for the church, about God. That would even include nursery songs, the birthday song, patriotic songs, and even holiday songs.

Secular music is heard all the time, every where you go: in the grocery store, in the beauty salon, in the theaters, on the television, on the bus, in the mall, at the doctor’s office, and when you’re waiting on a call, to name a few. In other words, we all listen to secular music, with or without our consent.

I think the key to Christians listening to secular music first and foremost is, what is this music saying? Are the lyrics clean? If they don’t lift up the name of Jesus, can I at least hear it without blushing or not wanting anyone to know I am listening to it? Is it anti-biblical themes? For example: does it speak of violence, sex outside of marriage, murder, stealing, lying, covetousness…If so, it’s not a good choice of music for the believer!

Even some of the oldies, could be music to stay away from. Do you remember “Me and Mrs. Jones”? It’s about adultery, yet we sang it thinking it was ok, when it was really not ok to sing about a man having an affair with a married woman. Or Ray Charles’ “I’ve Got a Woman” when he not only was singing about an affair, but was using the melody of a gospel song to do it with!

How much are we listening to what we are listening to? I would say, not enough! In John 17:19 Jesus said: “And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.”

He sanctified Himself that we might be sanctified, set apart, consecrated to God the Father. He did it for us! Now, we have to do it for ourselves, and our posterity. That they may be sanctified.

Am I saying that you shouldn’t listen to secular music? I am not! But I am saying that you should be mindful of the music you listen to and allow your children to listen to. Some secular music can be fun to listen to, leaving you with a good feeling, while other songs can leave you questioning yourself, your life, your family, your relationship with Jesus, and the world in which you live. Here’s a song from the past: “Oh be careful little ears what you hear!” Wonderful Jesus!

It’s a Family Affair!

Acts 16:31 – So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

If you are familiar with the Bible, then you know that Jesus had many half siblings (Matthew 13:55). And the Bible let’s us know that at least one of those siblings ended up being in ministry: James!

Paul in his letter to the Galatians calls James, the brother of the Lord, an apostle (Galatians 1:19). Therefore, we can say with certainty that Jesus’ brother was in ministry with the apostles. Also, in the next chapter, Paul calls the Lord’s brother a pillar of the church.

I heard Rick Renner teaching last year on the book of James and he shared that Jesus appeared to His brother after His resurrection to establish his faith!

“After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles” (1 Corinthians 15:7). It was probably at this point when James went from just watching his brother to joining his Savior brother in ministry.

And then there is Paul. Not many people realize that Paul had family that was passionate for Jesus, but he did!

Romans 16:7 -‘salute Andronicus and Junias, my kindred, and my fellow-captives, who are of note among the apostles, who also have been in Christ before me.’ YLT

Kindred means “one’s family and relations”; so I used the literal translation because not all versions of the Bible translated the word correctly.

Acts 23:16 tells us of a nephew of Paul’s who overheard the plot of the Jews to not eat anything until they had killed him. So I’m pretty sure that his sister and her family also knew the Lord, because otherwise, they would have wanted Paul dead for blasphemy.

So as you can see, although Paul was not married, he had a family that he was connected to. And they were saved before him, (at least the ones mentioned in Romans). And I believe they were probably responsible for his salvation!!

Which is my point for the blog tonight. All of us have family members who need to know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. And some of those family members we may have grown weary praying for. But look at Jesus and Paul.

James and his brothers made fun of Jesus when he first started in ministry. And Paul was putting the Believers in prison. And yet, we find them in ministry with their family. Paul’s kinsmen were noted men of the faith, apostles. And God called Paul into the ministry to work with them. Although he ended up being the one we know the most about.

You may not be in full time ministry or even feel like you are in ministry at all; but if you are a believer in Jesus, then you are in His ministry. And He has called you and He is calling your family.

So if they are still out there doing their own thing, you just keep praying and believing God for them. You have a promise and an example from the Word of God that He saves families.

And if you are in ministry and your family is working with you, don’t allow the devil to try and trick you into believing that is a bad thing! Nope! It’s a God thing! Keep up the good work for the Lord until every last one of them call Him Lord! Wonderful Jesus!!

When the Odds Are Against You-2

2 Chronicles 13:3 -And Abijah set the battle in array with an army of valiant men of war, even four hundred thousand chosen men: Jeroboam also set the battle in array against him with eight hundred thousand chosen men, being mighty men of valour.

In my last post, I mentioned that Abijah and Jeroboam were in position to go to war against each other. The only problem was that Jeroboam outnumbered Abijah 2 to 1.

In verse 4 of the same chapter we read, “And Abijah stood up upon mount Zemaraim, which is in mount Ephraim, and said, Hear me, thou Jeroboam, and all Israel”

Abijah doesn’t wait for the attack! He stands up to Jeroboam and his army of 800,000 men to set the record straight!

He reminds Jeroboam that God made an unbreakable covenant with David and His descendants!
He reminds Jeroboam that he was not of royal blood, just someone who had rebelled against the king.
He reminds Jeroboam that when he attacked Rehoboam and took the throne, Rehoboam was too young and timid to resist him.
He reminds Jeroboam that he isn’t even trying to serve God!

And if that was not enough, he reminds Jeroboam:

That he has nerves challenging the royal kingdom of the Lord, David’s descendants.
And he has some nerves challenging the people of God who serve Him and obey Him!

And then He drops the bomb on Jeroboam: God is on our side and don’t even attempt to fight against Him for you shall surely not win!! I get excited every single time I read or hear this statement!! Don’t even try it devil, you won’t win!!

It’s high time that we in the Body of Christ stop letting the devil push us around. After all, he was cast out of heaven and rejected by the Father! He was defeated at Calvary and Jesus made a public spectacle out of him! And Jesus took the keys for our defeat from him and gave us keys of victory!

We need to develop a new mindset when the odds are against us, by realizing that “if God is for us, who can be against us!” We need to shout to the enemy of our soul, “I am more than a conquer in Christ Jesus!” And we need to remind him, “No weapon formed against me shall prosper!’

Sometimes you have to respond to the enemy and let him know that “I am not the one! I don’t care if you defeated this person or that person, I’m not that person! I don’t care if I lost last year, I won’t lose this year! I don’t care if I quit in the past, I won’t be quitting today!!

You can whip the devil in Jesus’ name! You can win!! So when the odds are stacked against you, and you feel like you back is against the wall, remind the devil not only who you are, but whose you are!! And don’t you forget-the battle is the Lord’s!! Wonderful Jesus!!

When the Odds Are Against You!

This is a wonderful passage of scripture that encourages me time and again in the midst of challenging situations.

In this passage, we have the king of Judah, Abijah, and the king of Israel, Jeroboam, who are set for battle. Abijah had an army of 400,000 valiant men of war and Jeroboam had an army with 800,000 chosen men, being mighty men of valour.

Both kings had warriors on their side, but Jeoboam had twice as many men as Abijah had. Not only that, Jeroboam had been king for 18 years and Abijah for only three years. So not only does Jeroboam, king of Israel, have more men, but he also has more experience at being king and dealing with warfare.

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt that the odds were against you? Your enemy had the deck stacked so heavily against you that there was no possible way you could win? Maybe his finances were so much greater than yours that you felt the war had already been decided?

It’s amazing how often people come under attack from the enemy and they are the person “most likely to lose” even before they get started. Well, this was the case with Abijah. He was slated to lose this battle.

This scenario happens in every aspect of our lives. In a sporting event, there can be a strong team and a weak team; in a divorce there can be a rich or connected person and a “not so rich or connected person”. In a job situation, there can be a boss and an employee, a system against an individual. I think you get the point. This is not a new thing under the sun. And it wasn’t new with Abijah!

Well, I want you to know that Abijah wasn’t worried about his status as a new king, the size of his troop, or the victories of Jeroboam! He wasnt’ even worried about losing!

How about you? Are you in a situation that seems impossible for you and you’ve been slated to lose? I’ve got news for you…the tables can turn in your favor. Check back in to my next post (or read the story for yourself) and see how Abijah dealt with the overwhelming odds that were against him. Wonderful Jesus!!

Add it to the Mix!

Hebrews 4:2 – For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.

I am a firm believer in the power of the gospel. As a matter of fact, I wholeheartedly agree with Paul when he wrote:

Romans 1:16 – For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

Many times in a service, or in one to one evangelism we witness people “getting saved” and later find that their lives have not been changed at all. The reason I put “getting saved” in quotes, because after many years of watching altar calls and being a part of evangelism, I have to admit that I grew cynical to the process of what we term as witnessing.

I believe that I have been redeemed by the Blood of Jesus! And I believe that anyone can be redeemed. Yet and still, people pray “the sinner’s prayer” and continue on in life as if nothing happened.

I was so puzzled and troubled by this that I had to go to the Lord.

Hebrews 4 gives a powerful insight to this dilemma. When the gospel is preached (the power of the gospel to get people saved) is in the message. And there is nothing wrong with the message! Both Romans and Hebrews agree with the key to that happening, “faith has to be mixed with the gospel”. Plain and simple faith. It was true for the people in Word, it was true during the Reformation period, it was true, during the Great Awakening, it was true when I was born again, and it is still true for the millennias and generation Z.

When I was in high school, my English teacher had a quote on the wall that read, “A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still”. Benjamin Franklin is noted for having said this. I have never forgotten it. So when I share my faith in the Lord Jesus, I never ever try and convince people to believe. I want them to believe and I pray that they will believe, but I never try to make them believe. Because I can’t! When we try to “strong arm” people with the gospel, they will walk away from you still believing what they believed beforehand. As a matter fact, they now have another belief: a belief that Christians are pushy!

In a service, when the altar call is given and people come to altar it can be a really sad time or a time of rejoicing. If people come to the altar for salvation because they want to embrace the Savior, Jesus, then it is a time of rejoicing. The Word tells us that all of heaven rejoices when even one person come to the Savior. If they come because someone pulled on them, it can be sad, for they leave thinking that they are alright when they are actually not alright! Or they leave knowing that they didn’t believe what they prayed, they just wanted to get you off of their back!

The power for salvation is in the gospel. If people don’t believe it, they are not going to be any different afterwards because they heard the gospel but didn’t add faith in the mix. Therefore, they didn’t profit from the benefit of having heard it. However, when they believe the gospel is not only truth, but truth for them, they are born again of the Spirit of God. And their profit is great!

A wise man once told me, “I can’t be the Holy Spirit in people’s lives. Only He can! So I let Him!” And so as much as we want to see people saved from eternal damnation; as much as we want to see people live blessed lives, as much as we want to see people in heaven when we get there; we absolutely must allow the Holy Spirit to work on the hearts of those people and lead them to the Savior.

Paul wrote, “Some plant, some water, but God gets the increase!” We must realize that our responsibility in the ministry of reconciliation is to plant and water and to trust God with the increase! People need Jesus! And Jesus saves and desire that none should perish. So the Holy Spirit will help us in witnessing. Let’s just remember the part that we play and stop trying to convince people that they are saved because they prayed when faith was never involved in the mix. Wonderful Jesus!

What Are You Saying?

Psalm 107:2 – Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;

I have to be honest and admit, that everything I am saying lately is not godly. Let me explain.

When I think of the above verse, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, I think about things like:

Let the weak say I am strong!
Let the poor say I am rich!
Let the sick say I am healed!

But lately, I have been listening to myself and I’m not sure that I need to be saying what I am saying.

You see, I am a teacher, and school is just beginning. And already, stuff is happening. Most particularly, my schedule is probably the worst that I have ever seen in my entire career. And needless to say… I am not happy.

So in the process of trying to get my administrator to see the schedule through my eyes, I have realized that I have not been speaking words of faith. As a matter of fact, I’ve been complaining. And we all know where that left the children of Israel after they crossed the Red Sea!

Some things are easier for me than other things. And while I feel positive that everything will work our for my good, I am not saying that as much as I am saying, “This is ridiculous!” “This is not right!” “Next time I talk to her I going to say…”

This morning when I woke up, I realized, when it is all said and done, will God be pleased with the way I have been responding? I spend a lot of time as a minister, teacher, and parent telling others how to respond in difficult situations, and I have not responded in like manner. I have a lot of valid reasons in the natural to complain, but when someone is sick, they have valid reasons to say they are sick. Or when someone is struggling in their finances, they have a valid reason to say they are not rich. And so forth and so on…

As I was preparing my room today for the first day of school, Kirk Franklin’s “My Life is In Your Hands,” came on. Here are a few of the lyrics:

I know that I can make it! I know that I can stand!

No matter what may come my way, my life is in Your hands!

With Jesus I can make it! With Him I know I can stand!

No matter what may come my way, my life in Your hands!

And you know what happened? That’s when I decided that God was confirming His word to me from this morning’s message of a renewed mind. So will I still advocate for myself so that I can have a manageable schedule that will allow me the time I need to prepare for my students and to give them focused and rigorous instruction? Absolutely! But I can do all of that while saying what the redeemed say:

If God be for me, who can be against me?

No weapon formed against me shall prosper?

What the devil means for evil, God means for my good!!

Now just a word of caution: I don’t think she is the devil, but I understand that he is constantly at work to get me to operate in my flesh. And he will use normal situations in life, to be that irritant. But she is not my enemy, nor do I dislike her. However, I do dislike the situation immensely, but will not elaborate any further.

And while I am changing what I say, I will also trust Him to work it out for me because He is the righteous judge of every situation. My administrator may not change my schedule, although I am believing God that she will; but God is certainly going to help me to change my attitude, and to change my words!!

How about you? Have you heard yourself saying things that the redeemed ought not to say? Have you finished a conversation feeling like you need to repent or read the word? If so, you may need to stop and ask yourself, “What am I saying?” Don’t miss out on the assistance of God by complaining when you can saturate the atmosphere with faith filled words! I just saying!! Wonderful Jesus!!

IT’S INSTINCTIVE!

Matthew 13:3 – “Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying:…”

One evening as I was praying for my great niece, age 3, who was being rushed to the hospital, I heard in my spirit, “Teach the young mothers how to fight for their children.” I knew that God was giving me an assignment but I didn’t know when I would get to fulfill it or how.

When we had the all night prayer, mentioned in my previous post, that was the assignment that I was given, by my assistant pastor, who also leads our women’s ministry. So needless to say, I was excited to share what I believed was a word from God.

On the morning of the all night prayer, as I was meditating about the message, I heard the Holy Spirit remind me that Jesus spoke in parables. I agreed! Then He told me to consider the mama bear and how she protects her cubs.

I YouTubed a mama bear protecting her young. In the video the mama bear and her cubs were at the river drinking water and foraging for food. On the video another bear ( a hungry male bear fresh out of hibernation) came on the scene, noticed one of the cubs alone, and headed for it. Out of nowhere the mama bear rushed the other bear. After a few minutes of the mama bear’s attack, the male bear left and the mama bear and cubs continued what they were doing. A few minutes later, the thin male bear returned, but this time his focus was the mama bear. Instead of waiting for the attack, the mama bear raced across the water and attacked again, but was more aggressive in the attack. The other bear finally gave up, left, and according to the commentator, it didn’t return.

When I finished watching that video, I knew what the Lord was telling me to share.

It’s a mother’s instinct to protect her young. Whether that mother is an animal or a human, by the nature of motherhood, mother’s protect first!!

God talked to me about how this works instinctively in everything but the spiritual realm. As mothers, we should instinctively know that when the enemy (the devil) attacks our children it’s time to fight. Whether they are attacked spiritually, physically, or emotionally, our position is to instinctively be in a position of attack on the enemy.

I shared an example about how the devil attack our youngest child with breathing issues around the age of six. We were coming home from church when she said she couldn’t breathe. I told her, yes you can! She replied she couldn’t and her breathing seemed labored. When we got to the house, I laid her on the couch in our living room and my husband and I prayed. She continued to labor with her breathing. We continued to pray.

Finally he left, and I continued to pray. I told the devil he wasn’t going to give my child asthma. I was not going to the hospital. And she was not dying so take his hands off. And so forth and so on! I prayed until her breathing evened out and she fell asleep. Glory to God!!!!

I’ve had several times as a mother to fight for our daughters. When the devil attacks our daughters, my attitude is, “This means war!”

When he tried to bring that labored breathing back on her, I get at him again. No, devil! I don’t think so! I told you to take your hands off of my baby!!… and anything else that came to mind!

One day she had an issue that needed medical attention and the doctors noted that she had had tests to check for asthma, but for some reason it was never diagnosed. I guess not!! God is a good God!!

I know that I was given that assignment because I fight first and ask questions later. We have seen God heal our children or intervene on their behalf more times than we can count. Why? Because we will fight for them.

As I said to the women that night: This is not a braggadocios statement, this is how we live life in our home. We don’t take what the devil sends our way because he decided that was what he was going do. We take God at His word and we fight for what God has promised us.

Do we win every battle? Not yet!! But we win many more than we lose because when God is for you, who can be against you? I cannot go into everything that I shared that night, but I will say this: I challenged the women of God to let the fight for their children become instinctive as they confront the enemy and tell him to take his hands off of their children. And I encourage you to do the same! Wonderful Jesus!

ALL NIGHT LONG

Luke 6:12 – Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.

Jesus was a praying man. The scriptures let us know that He prayed so much, that He even went without sleep to commune with the Father.

Now I don’t know about you, but I have never found this to be an appealing way to pray. I love spending time with the Lord at night, hence my blog posts are done before I retire; but staying up all night to pray has never truly been an interest of mine. I think the latest I have ever stayed up in prayer is until 2 in the morning.

This past Friday was our third annual all night of prayer for the women of our congregation. There were some friends amongst us, but mostly the women were of our congregation. We gathered at 8 pm and actually ended around 330 am on Saturday morning because of some obligations on Saturday. There were over 80 women in attendance with a few teenagers in the mix.

We always have an agenda that consists of times of sharing from God’s word, worship, and of course, prayer. But this year we really wanted the Holy Spirit to lead the prayer meeting. So we spent time in prayer and fasting during the week. And He did.

As our assistant pastor set the stage and the theme of the night, you could actually feel the excitement building in our midst. Our primary focus was to pray for our children, but she let it be known that we would flow with the Holy Spirit!

Our worship leader began with an exhortation of lifting our voices in praise to our God. One scripture that she used that really blessed me was Psalm 115:17-18 in the Living Bible:

“The dead cannot sing praises to Jehovah here on earth, but we can! We praise him forever! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!”

And did we praise Him! With much singing, playing of musical instruments and dancing before the King we gave praise. One sister danced so beautifully before the Lord that she ushered in a spirit of liberty. The atmosphere was set for faith filled praying!

Immediately ministry began as people came to the altar to be free from the bondage’s that have been holding them back. And every time an exhortation was given, more prayer and ministry were released. We came to offer ourselves up as intercessors, but God met some of our personal needs in exchange.

As we learned the things plaguing our children today, we cried out against those things keeping our children in bondage. We were united in our time and the night sped away as we sought the Father on behalf of our children. Not just our personal kids, but the children in our city also. There were so many wonderful exhortations that I cannot mention them all, but a great time was had by all! We even broke off into small groups and prayed for our personal needs and concerns.

The night of prayer ended with communion and the lighting of candles. Now the communion was to serve as a reminder of the covenant we have in Jesus and a memorial unto Him. The candles were for unity sake, and it’s absolutely beautiful to see so many candles raised to the Lord on one accord.

As I mentioned, earlier, it was our third all night prayer and many felt it was the best one yet!

Today in service we had several testimonies of healings that took place and of the impact of being in the prayer with so many women. I know that so much more happened that night in prayer and I eagerly await more fruit coming forth from it.

All in all, as we took time out of our lives to meet with God all night long I can assure you that we were all glad that did. Wonderful Jesus!!

IS THAT MY BIKE?

1 Samuel 30:19 – And nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything which they had taken from them; David recovered all.

I love the account of David at Ziklag! For those who are not familiar with this record of David and his men I encourage you to go and read it in its entirety. But for brevity’s sake I will summarize it.

David and his men went out to battle. While they were gone from the camp, the Amalekites showed up and took everything and every body from his camp. When he returned to camp and saw what had happened he was distressed; and to make matters worst, his men wanted to stone him. He inquired of the Lord if he should pursue the Amalekites and God told him to go, for he would recover all. This verse let us know that he did indeed recover all.

As I was sitting here thinking about a blog for this week, I remembered a testimony my friend shared at church and thought that I would share it here:

My friend lived in a nice home in a changing neighborhood. As a single woman she was concerned about this and was careful to leave everything locked up. However, on this particular night she shared that she had left her garage door open one night during the week. When she returned home she saw a van in the alley and some guys with a bike. As she approached, she realized that they were coming from her garage with her bike.

She jumped out of her SUV that she left running, and said to the guys, “Is that my bike?” Of course, they denied it. She continued to tell them that it was her bike and they were to put it back where they got it from. Lo and behold, they put the bike back, jumped in their van, and rode off!

Now! She is not a tall woman! She did not pretend to have a weapon with her! She was alone and she put herself in a vulnerable position by getting out of her vehicle and leaving it running in an alley with a couple of thieves. When she shared this she told it with all of the attitude that she had used that night! We laughed until tears fell down our cheeks, because we could see it, and yet it was a bold thing for her to do! I still chuckle when I think of it. But we also rejoiced with her, because she took a stand against her enemy and prevailed!

I told her it would be used in a sermon one day, but I wanted to share it in today in my blog.

When I think of her confronting those thieves, I think of how we are to confront the devil when he tries to steal from us. Whether it is our finances, our health, our children, our marriage, our jobs, or our peace, we need to demand that he put it back!!!! Jesus told us in John 10:10 that he is a thief. Every time he shows up, he’s come to steal from us, kill something in our lives, or destroy something or us! He is relentless and he is bold!

It never occurred to her that they could attack her and take her vehicle. It wasn’t until she was in her house that she even felt nerves over standing up to them. But a righteous indignation came over her, and she didn’t idly sit by and let them take her property.

Too many times we do just that! We just sit back and let the devil do whatever he wants to do to us. He wants to give us cancer, we accept it! If he wants to break up our marriage, we allow it! If he wants to keep us in poverty, we don’t resist it!

But I think it is high time to say to the devil, “Is that my stuff?” Is that my health? Is that my baby? Give it back!! And when we stand in our God given authority that Jesus accessed for us, I want you to know that the devil will act just like the thieves did, he will return it and flee!

What if he has already taken off with it? What if you currently are dealing with loss because of what he has done? What should do? Pursue him, for you shall recover all!! Wonderful Jesus!!