abandoned to Christ.

This is my second year of reading through God's awesome Word using Professor Grant Horner's 10 List Reading System . And I still LOVE it so much, words are not enough to express how much this reading plan has effected my life and continually increases my gratitude and love for my heavenly Father sacrificing His Son to save my soul; for the Son giving us His Holy Spirit to sanctify me, and seal me until the Day of Redemption. Hallelujah! Every day is different. Some days I'm in awe of how all 10 chapters tell the same story. Others days I'm in awe of how all 10 chapters teach me the same lesson through very different circumstances. And some days, like today, I'm reminded of the awesome gift of knowing God Almighty and being adopted as one of His holy children through repentance and faith in Christ, His Son (Mk 1:15, 2 Cor 7:10). Reading Ruth 3 and Isaiah 47 on the same day, I'm finding, is a very healthy heart exercise; spiritually and physically. W...

One of the greatest and saddest deceptions that befall all people, is the deception of self. Too often we believe our own press and/or who we think we are, versus who we truly are before the sight of God Almighty. Because of our sin nature, none of us are as "good" as we should be. And because of God's grace, none of us are as depraved as we could be. If you're reading this today and aren't sure if you're one of the people living under the deception of who you think you are versus who you truly are as God sees you, I have good news for you. Because God is so kind, is filled with compassion and mercy, and is exceedingly gracious to us, He gives and shows us things He doesn't have to; to help us live in truth. And what is it that God has compassionately given us so we can face the truth of who we really are? He's given us His Word—His holy and infallible "mirror". "the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the comma...

Tomorrow, we'll celebrate another Mother's Day. For some, it'll be a day in which we have the opportunity to honor our mothers who love the Lord and taught us to do the same. For others, it'll be a day when we miss our mothers who are no longer with us, but have entered eternity with Christ, or grievously, without Christ. And for others, this Mother's Day will be a day where we're tempted to send cards filled with untruthful, feel-good sentiments and share posts on social media that describe a godly mother we never had/have. Regardless of what kind of mother we had/have, we're called by God to love and honor her... biblically (read: Celebrating A Different Kind of Mother  to find out how to practically obey this biblical mandate). Some, like me and my husband, were raised by mothers who worked hard to put a roof over our heads and food on the table. But sadly, neither are/were believers (my mother-in-law entered eternity without Christ🥺) However,...

I know I don't mean to do it as often as I do. And I'm sure no one else does (or, at least I hope not). But we all do it more than we should, and even once is more than enough. What is it ? It, is our tendency to palliate, that is, lessen the severity of, without remedying—our sins and the sins of others—particularly those who sin similarly to us. And if we happen to like them, their sins aren't as bad as others, or even worse, we choose to be blind to their sins altogether. This is truly a grievous activity. How do we do it? Well, I'm not going to presume upon how others might do it, but I sure know how I do it. And it's often subtle because it's cloaked in the worldly definition of love. The love that says, "I'm okay, you're okay" therefore never does or says anything that might make you dislike or reject me. So, when I see you sin, and especially if it's a sin similar to mine, I might say something like, "Oh, well...none of ...

When we were little children, the first time we received a lollipop or a shiny sticker from our doctor, we were overjoyed and grateful. The second time, we were again excited about trying a new lollipop flavor and the new sticker we could get. Perhaps this time, it would be a scratch and sniff! But the third time, we begin to grow weary with the same old lollipop and sticker choices. So we snuff our noses as we walk by the lollipops and stickers and brighten our eyes to the new, bigger and better prize we have earned! Yep. Earned. As cute and cuddly as we are when we're little, we're still sinners waiting to tell the world what our demands are and by golly, they better deliver. We start first with our parents. Much like our doctor's visits, we act as if our parents owe us something. For what? Our mother's owe us because she carried us for nine months, fed us, sacrificed her figure and health and some of them, their lives? Our mother's labor for us from the d...

E.L. James (Erika Leonard James) born March 7, 1963, is only six years and 20 days older than me. She's a British author whose first book, Fifty Shades of Grey was a runaway success. She's married, and she and her husband  have two teenage sons (as of 2012, not sure how old they are now). Many say her books were a surprise hit, but I don't agree. It's no surprise that this trilogy filled with every shade of evil, only proves what God already said—we're all depraved, and without Christ, we're actually drawn to darkness rather than repulsed by it. "And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil." (John 3:19, ESV) E.L. James gladly admits that Fifty Shades of Grey is her "midlife crisis, writ large. All my fantasies are there, and that's it." Some people purchase a new car or a new house; they get in shape, or find new hobbies when t...

The prevalent thoughts and images about the "spirit" of Christmas usually involves: Santa Claus, worldly peace, sweets, merriment, feasting, lavish gift giving and receiving, the hustle and bustle of shopping and enjoying elaborate entertainment events to celebrate the birth of Jesus—the First Coming of Christ, the only begotten Son of God. But none of these things are found in any of the Old Testament prophecies or in the New Testament accounts of the great and glorious day that our Creator entered into His own creation as a humble babe. Please don't misunderstand, I'm not saying we ought not enjoy celebrating Christmas. My family does. What I am saying is, the focus and purpose of our joyful celebrations should be the same as God's focus and purpose: to bring the Good News of eternal salvation by giving us Christ as a propitiation for our sins. The true spirit of Christmas and the reason for the season according to God is: eternal salvation . ...

Many of us are familiar with the "Blessed are..." portions of Jesus' sermon on the mount and sadly, some think that's actually the entire sermon. But it's not. Our Lord's sermon spans two chapters in the Apostle Matthew's gospel, with the major theme being: live holy lives unto the Lord. Though the Beatitudes are very important, it's only the short introduction to Christ's great teaching on what a true Christian's life looks like. The Lord Jesus strongly teaches that our mere profession of faith doesn't prove we belong to Him. Only the demonstration of the Holy Spirit's work gives evidence that we've been sealed (2 Cor 1:22). But if the fruit of righteousness isn't born in all who profess the name of Christ, it's clear they're not possessed by the life of Christ. Sermon on the mount in a nutshell: 1)   Blessed are those who are in Christ and live as He lived (Mt 5:1-12) 2)   I should be physical evidence...

The joys of parenting begin when the news first hits our ears...we're going to have a baby! Then we get to revel in all the shopping of baby items, planning of baby showers and dreaming of all that we'll do with our precious little gift from God. We savor every moment we get to sing to our child in the womb and read the Words of God to him or her every day. Then we're elated when the grand and long awaited day arrives and we get to hold our little bundle of joy in our arms; smell his/her fresh babyness, and delight in the wonders of holding a new life! The parenting joys continue as we watch our sweet child experiment with sounds and begin to coo and smile, laugh, roll and play. We're just as eager and excited as they are when they learn to crawl and walk...until we realize a fully independent mobile child is often a full independent accident waiting to happen. Then we have nightmares that they've ingested poison, or a toy, put a fork in a socket, or climbe...

Tomorrow is Mother's Day, a day where many mother's will be honored and celebrated by her children, husbands, other family members, friends and even some online friends the Lord has allowed. It'll be a beautiful day, but is this all that it's about? Is Mother's Day, a day only to honor our earthly mothers or be honored ourselves? Or is a day, another day we get to give thanks to God for His inexpressible Gift of Christ (2 Cor 9:15)? It's a tough question even for me to answer because like everyone else, I like to be praised, applauded, honored, appreciate and noticed. I like being made to feel special. Don't we all? About four years ago when I was in the midst of nearly daily doctor's appointments and serious and painful tests, I prayed to the LORD for help and He led me to a faithful sister in Christ, Rachel Barkey . Rachel, a wife and mother of two young children, fiercely battled breast cancer for more than four years. Only a few months...

"Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end." (John 13:1, ESV) No matter how many times I read this verse, I'm always in awe of what it says. While Jesus was fully aware of the utter torment and anguish He was about to endure that very night, His thoughts were not on Himself and what horrors would befall Him, but His full attention and love were fixed on His beloved apostles. The original Greek for the phrase "loved them to the end" means that Jesus demonstrated God's perfect and pure (agape) love to His disciples, continually and fully; to completion, even in His darkest hour. I'm in a dark place right now as my heart aches deeply for our youngest son, our prodigal, who is no longer walking in God's truth, but walking rebelliously in the deceptive world where truth is relative rather than a...

There are a barrage of "Christian" films that are currently in theaters and some soon to be released. The peculiar thing about all these movies are that none of them...until now, have been written or produced by actual Christians. One movie was written and produced by New Agers, another by an atheist and then this one: "God's Not Dead " produced by Pure Flix Entertainment in association with Check the Gate Productions . Though "God's Not Dead" opened in a mere 780 theaters, it earned $9.2 million and ranked number four its first weekend. Other movies in the top five opened in nearly 4,000 theaters and took a 20 to 50 percent revenue dive in their second week. But the revenue for "God's Not Dead" only went down by 4.5 percent, remained in the top five (taking the fifth position), added 398 more theaters and earned $8.8 million its second weekend with a total gross of $21.8 million thus far. After having the joy of watch...

God  crushed  His Son; Christ  relinquished  His majesty; then  gave  Himself up for us so that we might be His people—holy and righteous (1 Thess 2:10), full of mercy and grace (James 3:17), and to proclaim His excellencies to the world (Ps 9:1-2, 40:5, 116:12-14; 1 Peter 2:9). God didn't save us so we could be free to do whatever we want, knowing we're forgiven of all sins: past, present and future. Neither did the Father do this so that we could haphazardly wander around this earth, mooning over all we want and don't have (like the rest of this world). Just as the honor of being assigned as an ambassador of an earthly country should not be taken lightly, so we also, who are in Christ, should not take our high calling as children of the Most High God lightly. An earthly ambassador is chosen to live in a foreign land to represent their country, while maintaining every attribute and character of their homeland. An ambassador does not lose or...

Is there life after death? Are we reincarnated and come back as something else depending on the kind of life we previously lived? Can the dead rise back to life? Is there really a Heaven and Hell? The answers are: yes, there is life after death; no,  reincarnation isn't real; and yes, when a person dies, they will be resurrected either to eternal life in Heaven with God, or eternal damnation in Hell with Satan and his demons (John 5:28-29). Two days ago, we rejoiced in the reason why Good Friday is so good—because, once and for all, the penalty for sin was paid in full for those who by faith, repent and trust their lives to Jesus (Hebrews 10:10). Today, we rejoice that Jesus Christ is risen! The grave that could not hold our Savior, cannot hold us. The power of sin and Satan were defeated so that sinners whom Christ came to save would be guaranteed eternal life in Him. Many will celebrate today with chocolate, bunnies, Easter eggs, new dresses and hat...

Sequestration (n): Law —the act of removing (property) temporarily from the possession of the owner; seize and hold, as the property and income of a debtor, until legal claims are satisfied. There's been a lot of talk about the sequestration that will automatically go into effect on March 1, 2013 if Congress is unable to come to an agreement regarding our national debt crisis of $16 trillion. Businesses in the private sector will not be sequestered, only government agencies and its employees. I say "only" because many have purported that since the sequestration will affect a minority of the population, these talks are merely "scare" tactics our government is trying to employ in order to rouse the public to force their congressional leaders (particularly the Republican leaders) to acquiesce and completely agree with  the President and the Democratic party's solutions for the deficit. Unfortunately, a number of these thoughtless conversati...