BOOTSTRAPS OR DOTS

BOOTSTRAPS OR DOTS

Today, I watched a couple of videos on the horrors of human trafficking and how massive the problem is worldwide. Almost all the people involved in rescue operations always mention God and or the Lord Jesus in their testimonies. As strong as their convictions are, they quickly see that the obstacles are way too overwhelming even to attempt to remedy the situation without God. We need to look at the situations we face with the same attitude, recognizing that only God and our Lord Jesus Christ have the perfect resolutions to every complicated problem and horror the devil has put us in.

 

Many of us have grown up being taught that we could overcome any obstacle if we really wanted to. Even in church or Bible college, we’re taught such verses as Romans 8:37: “We are more than conquerors. . . .,”

 

Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things. . . .,”

2 Corinthians 2:14: We “triumph. . . .,”

Romans 16:20: “Satan under your feet. . . .,”  

and Ephesians 6:10: “Finally, my brethren, be strong. . . .”

 

But sometimes, we leave out the most important part of those verses in our thinking, our conversation, and even when we teach our children. What’s in the dots? We fall far short of becoming any of those things to their full capacity without what is in those dots.

 

Some of us have adhered to the old adage: “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.”  But we cannot pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. It’s impossible. Just try it. Yes, a very clever person could hold onto their bootstraps and jump into the air for a moment. But in a second, he or she falls right back down to the ground. That’s what it’s like to try to do the best and be the best without God. One will always fall short.

 

It’s what’s in the dots that is important. God is in the dots, and only God knows all the secrets and all the solutions. In Romans 8:37: “We are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”

 

In Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ.”

 

In 2 Corinthians 2:14: “Thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ.”

 

In Romans 16:20: “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet.”

 

And in Ephesians 6:10: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and the power of his might.”

 

Let’s not forget that the source of any true solution must be orchestrated by and directed by God Himself. We can gather all the available information, but we still won’t have all the answers without HIM.

 

Yes, we have God in Christ in us, and that’s tremendously powerful, but we need always to remember that we are not the center of answers; only God is, and many times He keeps some secrets to Himself. He is the one doing the perfect work in only a way that only He can.

 

Jesus put it like this: “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works” (John 14:10). God is working in each of us to get things done right in the world. Let’s not do so much analyzing and criticizing, but more trusting in God’s wisdom and sovereignty to carry out His will.

 

Love, Carolyn

Many of you have been reading my Preach letters for several years, and now you have teenagers or grown children. If you think they would benefit from my articles, let me know, and I can put them on my email list, or send by mail if that works better. 😊

 

 

IT'S WORTH CELEBRATING

TAKING TIME TO CELEBRATE

God tells us, “Every man should enjoy the good of all his labor, it is the gift of God” (Eccles. 3:13). How often have we not taken the time to do this?

 

We enjoy the money we get from a job but there are lots of jobs where we don’t get paid with money and we need to take a minute to acknowledge and celebrate those too. What about the small, seemingly insignificant work we do throughout a day? God says we are to enjoy the good of ALL our labor.

We aren’t supposed to just work and work and work until we exhaust ourselves. Most of us need to celebrate more. God says we’re supposed to “ENJOY THE GOOD OF ALL HIS [OUR] LABOR”, not just the good from the paycheck we get from our jobs, but the good we get from anything we work at. Do we get a good feeling of accomplishment? The satisfaction of a small victory? Do we get a thank you from someone? Happiness in a new skill learned? Do we feel good about doing something we’ve been putting off for a while? There are many good results from our labors and lots of reasons to celebrate because we work at a variety of tasks.

 

Just think of some things you work at: Do you work at exercising? Eating well? Reading the Bible? Praying? Going to bed on time? Do you work at not gossiping? At paying your bills on time? Do you work at saying something kind? Do you work at spending more time with your kids?

 

Think of two things you worked at today. Whatever it was, God says we need to take the time to CELEBRATE. It’s His gift to us. We can say, “Hey, I did pretty well at that. Great job! I did it!” The Lord wants us to be blessed and this is just one way He’s given us to put a little more joy in day.

 

Love, Carolyn

 

I would love for you to have a copy of some of my writing. Here’s the link:

https://www.amazon.com/WINGS-Journey-Faith-Earthly-Heavenly-ebook/dp/B007B4E1DK/ref=sr_1_14?crid=EZNJZZUP3KHG&dchild=1&keywords=wings+carolyn+molica&linkCode=ll2&linkId=db88efb13727dcb484eb29f5b1683284&qid=1622072523&sprefix=wings+carolyn+molica%2Caps%2C353&sr=8-14

 

 

CYNICAL SUSPICIONS - SHEEP OR WOLF

CYNICAL SUSPICIONS – SHEEP OR WOLF

A guy at work told me his parents had a large wholesale floral business and one day his dad walked in on a trusted employee who was signing a large check to herself. She was embezzling. After the legal hassles they decided to go into the retail floral business and once again they were embezzled to the tune of several million dollars. Here in Las Vegas, one tends to see too much of this—embezzling, fraud, bait and switch, etc. It’s easy to get cynical and suspicious of people in this kind of environment. So, as Christians, what do we do?

 

Jesus said, “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16). Wisdom comes from God. Not everyone out there is a wolf. There are plenty of sheep in God’s flock that we just haven’t met yet and only the Holy Spirit can help us decipher who is what.

 

We become wise as serpents by listening to the Spirit of Christ within. If we have suspicions, we ask for God’s wisdom and then believe what He shows us and act on it. Meanwhile we can stay harmless as doves by doing our best to try to see people through the Lord’s eyes. Again, we can ask for wisdom regarding this, “Lord how do You see this person?”

 

At this time of year, when we travel and may be in situations where there are lots of new people around us, we want to walk in the wisdom of the Lord. In any situation we are not alone. We have the Lord Jesus with us. And “if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (James 1:5). The Lord is generous with His wisdom and He doesn’t get mad at us if we ask for some.

 

Love,

Carolyn

 

See my publications on Amazon: Great keys to living a Christian life every day.

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LEARNING THE PHYSICAL TO BETTER UNDERSTAND GOD'S SPIRITUAL

 

LEARNING THE PHYSICAL TO BETTER UNDERSTAND GOD’S SPIRITUAL

How does a 3-dimensional printer work? It takes a digital file with all kinds of numbers and coordinates and from that information, it makes a physical object. That’s similar to how faith works. Faith takes a God-given idea and brings it into the physical world. How is it that you can make a call from Las Vegas to a friend in Hawaii, and you can communicate in words as if you were right there in the exact same space and time frame? Or what about a Zoom meeting? Think about it. It’s like you are in two places at the same time—kind of similar to the way our Lord Jesus has always been able to be in two or more places at the same time.

 

We need to pay attention to what we are guided to learn in the physical realm. God will use it to open portals of understanding from heaven—to connect the dots, to use what you know in the physical realm, to teach you the spiritual.

 

Learn much. Observe it. Hold it. Understand it. The things we take the time to study and grasp in the natural will help us to comprehend the spiritual.

 

Romans 1: 20 tells us: “For the invisible things of him [God] from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.” Let’s get better acquainted with some of the things that have been made by men, as well as concepts and things that were created by God in the first place. We need to stay awake and alert with a curious mind.

 

God created ants, and anyone who has watched ants, knows they are not lazy creatures. God uses a person’s knowledge of ants to make a point.

 

“Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.

 

“How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard: when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?” (Prov. 6: 6-9).

 

In this passage, God tells us about the habits of ants, but there are many passages in the scriptures that can be better understood and easier to apply, if we know something about the physical thing God is talking about.

 

We’ll only know everything God’s got in the Bible when we go to heaven, but for now, we can keep our ears and eyes open to what things and concepts the Lord has put right in front of us.

 

For instance, it’s kind of slow right now at work, so I’ve taken the opportunity to learn a few things from Chris, the finish carpenter I work with.

 

Jesus learned carpentry and there’s a reason God has that in the Bible. One thing I’ve learned from Chris is that there are specifically designed tools for different tasks. That seems logical enough, but I never really thought about it until I started paying attention and asking some questions. Then I started thinking about what Jesus would have learned at a young age in the trade, such as the importance of keeping things straight, using the right tools for the right project, measuring things twice and cutting once, and so much more.

 

Let’s keep our hearts open to what the Lord is magnifying in the physical, then see how He connects the dots to a more spiritual understanding of Him and the world we live in.

 

Love, Carolyn

See my publications on Amazon: Great keys to living a Christian life every day. https://www.amazon.com/WINGS-Journey-Faith-Sample-Comfort-ebook/dp/B00EBG117U/ref=sr_1_7?dchild=1&keywords=wings+a+journey+in+faith&qid=1618443902&sr=8-7

 

GOD DOESN'T LOOK AT THE MASSES; HE LOOKS AT EACH

GOD DOESN’T LOOK AT THE MASSES; HE LOOKS AT EACH

I send my preach letters to a small group of people who like to get the printed version via snail mail. But at the end of 2020, I lost contact with a doctor friend who’s been getting them since 2012. I felt bad and thought maybe she moved away. I continued to send them to her, but they got returned, so eventually I gave up. Then this week, she called. She was concerned about Jane and me because she was missing my preach letters, and she didn’t know if something happened to us during the covid thing.

 

As it turned out, she was at the same work address, but someone was not delivering my letters, but putting them in return mail instead! We had tried to find her but never did. So to reconnect with her really made me so happy. I thought of the man in Jesus’ parable who went to find his one lost sheep. I know it’s not the same thing exactly, but I felt the same joy as the man did.

 

“How think ye? If a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray” (Matt. 18:12-13).

 

For God, it’s never been about the numbers or the masses of people, but rather the quality of character. We are all, as individuals, like that one sheep that Jesus comes to find.

 

Throughout the Bible, God has never required the mass of followers to do His work, but the few who will call out to Him and do His will. When Gideon went after the Midianites, God reduced Gideon’s troops from 10,000 to only 300.

 

“And the Lord said unto Gideon, ‘By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place’” (Judg. 7: 7).

 

God doesn’t need a majority to believe in His miracles, to believe in His deliverance, or His kindness to a nation. Throughout history, our God has responded to the prayer and cry of single individuals like you and me. Look at Abraham, Hagar, Esther, Ruth, Job, Jonah, Zacchaeus, the woman with the issue of blood, and so many more. God isn’t looking for the multitudes. He is focused on looking at you and me individually. He will fix and restore all our losses.

 

“And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten. . . . And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed” (Joel 2:25-26).

 

Love, Carolyn

 

LIVING PROOF OF GOD'S DELIVERANCE

 LIVING PROOF OF GOD’S DELIVERANCE

My senior year in high school, I happily applied for scholarships to college, and I was pretty excited about it, that is until I got rejection after rejection and no one would help me. Even my counselor treated me like I was a complete loser. I went from excited to depressed pretty fast. Even though I went to church and read my Bible all the time, I didn’t know how to apply it to my state of mind. I got into drugs the day after graduation. I was able to find a job, but it was a lousy one, with no future. One of my girlfriends suggested we go to Los Angeles and be hookers. It was the 60’s, and I figured sex was about all I had going for me, so I thought that’s probably what I’d end up doing. My life was a mess.

 

Then the Lord came and rescued me. I was still struggling at the time. I’d gone to college, then nursing school, and nothing was satisfying the emptiness I felt, nor did it take away the deeply-rooted fear that I could end up on the street as a prostitute. It’s funny how fears that we have at a very tender age twist their way into our very fiber and stay with us even when those fears don’t make any sense anymore. I experienced this recently.

 

I was talking to a woman who was in a hard life situation. She’d lost her home, didn’t have work, and had two young children to support. She was very afraid. She told me she goes to church and she has hope that God will help her. I prayed for her and told her He would for sure. I knew from the Bible that God would help this woman, but one part of me had an overwhelming feeling of pain. I was thrown right back into the day my girlfriend suggested we should go be hookers; inside of me, I went to that hopeless place and felt emotionally wrung out.

 

Though I told the woman of God’s love and mercy, I didn’t feel it myself. I became her; I became my old self, with nothing of a future—falling, falling, with only a little hope in God to hang on to.

 

When I realized that this happened way too often when I ministered to people, God did something so wonderful to instantly change me. It was right there with me all along, but I didn’t see it. I could feel the person’s despair, but I wasn’t feeling the fact that I was living proof that the despair can turn into complete wonderful delight.

 

Yes, as a college-aged girl, I was messed up, which has given me great empathy for people in situations like I was in, but God rescued me. When my brother invited me to go to a Christian Rock Festival, I went. Then I re-dedicated myself to the Lord and started to study His Word and began to understand what I read and apply it. I’m a success story now. I’m not ultra-rich by any standards, but I’m okay. I did it—never had to be a hooker. And as silly as that sounds now, back then, it was very real. The Lord God saved me, and the Lord Jesus took me. I’m living proof that there’s a way out and up.

 

My personal psalm is Psalm 40:1-3: “I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.”

 

Now I’m one of the top faux finishers in Las Vegas, a published Christian author who’s read in over 100 countries and 27 languages. My life is good. I have friends and family who love me, and God’s given me the best job ever, to write for Him and help people.

 

Love, Carolyn

 

CHECK OUT OTHER STORIES FROM MY LIFE’S ADVENTURES:

 

WINGS: A JOURNEY IN FAITH from the Earthly to the Heavenly 

 

https://www.amazon.com/WINGS-Journey-Faith-Earthly-Heavenly-ebook/dp/B007B23JTY/ref=sr_1_12?crid=213J1NPC28BJ&dchild=1&keywords=carolyn%20molica%20wings&qid=1620741854&sprefix=carolyn%20molica%20%2Caps%2C530&sr=8-12&fbclid=IwAR3W4vU4OWsaQMzAwczJK6p6Z3iNs6HseX7_hRKXHcAUGZdwxzZMXk3vupc

GOD PREPARED FOR US

GOD PREPARED FOR US

God had the vision to create men and women so that He would have a family to love. But before He even created Adam and Eve, He had to do the prep work. In my world of painting in the construction and entertainment business, it’s usually 75% prep work like sanding and caulking and only about 25% doing the actual painting.”  We complain about it, but that’s just the way it is, and we’re in good company because it was that way with God too. He spent five days preparing the whole earth and the heavenlies for the entrance of His humans.

 

Genesis 2 summarizes the creation:

 

“These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew” (Gen 2: 4-5).

 

Notice here that in God’s realm, the plant already existed, and every herb existed in God’s mind and sight before it became a physical thing on the earth. God shows us right here in the beginning of the Bible how we are to have faith to bring good things into the earth realm: We need to “see” them in the 5^th-dimensional “vapor” form, and with our faith and our words, we bring them into our natural realm, just like God is showing us here.

 

“There went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Gen. 2:6-7).

 

In the Chumash, the first five books of the Bible in Hebrew, verse 7 is translated: “And He blew into his nostrils the soul of life.” The Chumash goes on to explain: “God thus made Man out of both the lower [earthly] and upper [heavenly] matter: his body from the dust and his soul from the spirit. ‘One who blows, blows from within himself,’ indicating that Man’s soul is part of God’s essence. This soul made Man a living being, defined as a speaking spirit. Accordingly, the life that is unique to Man and which only God could “blow” into him is the rational soul that includes the power of intelligent speech. This is what elevates a human above animal life: the ability, and therefore, the responsibility to use his intelligence in God’s service.”

 

God loved us so much that He spent five days preparing the earth and the heavenlies just for us to enjoy.

 

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

 

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

 

“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.’

 

“And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day” (Gen 1:26-28, 31).

 

And God did this for us: “And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil” (Gen. 2: 8-9).

 

Some people may think that the earth doesn’t belong to us anymore, but I believe that it does. God’s not going to anyone or anything take His gift away.

 

Psalm 115: 15-16 tells us: “Ye are blessed of the Lord, which made heaven and earth.  The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.”

 

God thinks we are very important, and throughout the Bible, He reminds us of how much He loves us and of how important we are to Him always.

 

In Psalm 8, David thinks about how much God thinks about us:

 

“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon, and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him?

 

“For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels” (Ps. 8:3-5). The word for angels is Elohim, which can be translated “angels” in some places, but should have been translated “God” in this verse because we know from Hebrews 1: 14 that angels are not regarded above humans, but were created to serve God’s men and women: “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?”

 

God created men and women to have dominion over the other things He created. And that means dominion in a good way, to care for the earth and the wonderful other things and beings God created.

 

“Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas” (Ps. 8:6-8).

 

We as God’s living speaking children, have great authority over all things of the earth. As we get to know God’s will for good to reign, we have authority in the name of Jesus Christ to call the good things of God into our realm, and we have the authority to throw the bad ones out.

 

All beings and things are subject to the authority we’ve been given by God in the name of Jesus Christ. The name of Jesus Christ is our calling card and our weaponry as well.

 

Paul reminds us in Philippians 2:10: “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.”

 

Our God loves us so much that He knew we would be born exactly when we were born and to whom we would be born, and He knew exactly what would be happening in everyone of our lives for all our lives. He planned the earth and all the heavens for us. We have authority in the earth and the heavenlies, and we have Him.

 

Let’s be brave in our individual endeavors, and let’s draw close to Him always.

 

“How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings”(Matt. 23:37).

 

Love, Carolyn

 

GOD PREPARED FOR US

 

GOD PREPARED FOR US

God had the vision to create men and women so that He would have a family to love. But before He even created Adam and Eve, He had to do the prep work. In my world of painting in the construction and entertainment business, it’s usually 75% prep work like sanding and caulking and only about 25% doing the actual painting.”  We complain about it, but that’s just the way it is, and we’re in good company because it was that way with God too. He spent five days preparing the whole earth and the heavenlies for the entrance of His humans.

 

Genesis 2 summarizes the creation:

 

“These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew” (Gen 2: 4-5).

 

Notice here that in God’s realm, the plant already existed, and every herb existed in God’s mind and sight before it became a physical thing on the earth. God shows us right here in the beginning of the Bible how we are to have faith to bring good things into the earth realm: We need to “see” them in the 5^th-dimensional “vapor” form, and with our faith and our words, we bring them into our natural realm, just like God is showing us here.

 

“There went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Gen. 2:6-7).

 

In the Chumash, the first five books of the Bible in Hebrew, verse 7 is translated: “And He blew into his nostrils the soul of life.” The Chumash goes on to explain: “God thus made Man out of both the lower [earthly] and upper [heavenly] matter: his body from the dust and his soul from the spirit. ‘One who blows, blows from within himself,’ indicating that Man’s soul is part of God’s essence. This soul made Man a living being, defined as a speaking spirit. Accordingly, the life that is unique to Man and which only God could “blow” into him is the rational soul that includes the power of intelligent speech. This is what elevates a human above animal life: the ability, and therefore, the responsibility to use his intelligence in God’s service.”

 

God loved us so much that He spent five days preparing the earth and the heavenlies just for us to enjoy.

 

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

 

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

 

“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.’

 

“And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day” (Gen 1:26-28, 31).

 

And God did this for us: “And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil” (Gen. 2: 8-9).

 

Some people may think that the earth doesn’t belong to us anymore, but I believe that it does. God’s not going to anyone or anything take His gift away.

 

Psalm 115: 15-16 tells us: “Ye are blessed of the Lord, which made heaven and earth.  The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.”

 

God thinks we are very important, and throughout the Bible, He reminds us of how much He loves us and of how important we are to Him always.

 

In Psalm 8, David thinks about how much God thinks about us:

 

“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon, and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him?

 

“For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels” (Ps. 8:3-5). The word for angels is Elohim, which can be translated “angels” in some places, but should have been translated “God” in this verse because we know from Hebrews 1: 14 that angels are not regarded above humans, but were created to serve God’s men and women: “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?”

 

God created men and women to have dominion over the other things He created. And that means dominion in a good way, to care for the earth and the wonderful other things and beings God created.

 

“Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas” (Ps. 8:6-8).

 

We as God’s living speaking children, have great authority over all things of the earth. As we get to know God’s will for good to reign, we have authority in the name of Jesus Christ to call the good things of God into our realm, and we have the authority to throw the bad ones out.

 

All beings and things are subject to the authority we’ve been given by God in the name of Jesus Christ. The name of Jesus Christ is our calling card and our weaponry as well.

 

Paul reminds us in Philippians 2:10: “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.”

 

Our God loves us so much that He knew we would be born exactly when we were born and to whom we would be born, and He knew exactly what would be happening in everyone of our lives for all our lives. He planned the earth and all the heavens for us. We have authority in the earth and the heavenlies, and we have Him.

 

Let’s be brave in our individual endeavors, and let’s draw close to Him always.

 

“How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings”(Matt. 23:37).

 

Love, Carolyn

REVELATION, ILLUMINATION, INSPIRATION

 REVELATION, ILLUMINATION, INSPIRATION

The late prophet, Kim Clement, spoke on the subject of truth. He explained that truth has three parts: Revelation, Illumination, and Inspiration. Revelation is something revealed. God has revealed Himself and His ways in the manual for life, called the Bible. But the Bible is only words in a book until those words are illuminated. Illumination is when the proverbial light bulb goes on, and we all of a sudden understand what we’ve read or heard. It’s that “ah-ha” moment. It’s when things flow together, and understanding takes place. This can only happen when God’s light turns on in a person’s heart.  

 

In the New Testament, the Greek word is ‘sunesis’ or ‘suniemi,’ and it means “to put together, mentally to comprehend, understand.”

 

The Lord wants us to be illuminated, and like Matthew 15:10 tells us: “Jesus called the multitude, and said unto them, ‘Hear, and understand.’”

 

But without the light of God illuminating what we hear or read, this is what happens: “Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: for the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them” (Acts 28:26-27).

 

Sunesis is what brings everything together and makes the Bible alive and real, and not just words on a page.

 

So, first, we have the revelation, then the illumination, and the final part is inspiration.

 

The word ‘inspire’ comes from the Latin combination of two words: ‘in’ or ‘into,’ and ‘spirare,’ to breathe. So inspiration is a breathing into. When we sneeze, we make the molecules of air in front of us take action. The sneezing of very small particles moves with force, the particles in front of that sneeze. So when we breathe into the air, we make things move physically. Inspiration makes things move too.

 

Often inspiration is something that makes us change our thinking to new and higher, deeper, and more positive thoughts. We can be inspired to plant something new, or maybe learn something new, or do something differently than before.  God gets us moving by first, Revelation, then Understanding, then Inspiration, all of which bring us to a higher, more positive spiritual level in this life.

 

Love, Carolyn

 

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GOD'S ANSWER TO REJECTION

 

GOD’S ANSWER TO REJECTION

For me, the saddest verse in the Bible is John 6:66: “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.” The second saddest is nine verses later: “Neither did his brethren believe in him” (John 7:5). Jesus came to save the world. He required commitment, but his disciples couldn’t handle it. They had their own ideas about how to live and about how Jesus should act too. Jesus disagreed with them. Jesus was rejected by the general population and by those he thought agreed with him—his disciples. God shows us through His son’s actions what we are to do when we get rejected by those we thought were our friends.

 

We all get rejected sometimes. We’ve asked for or at least hoped for some kind of commitment, and the person we asked was not willing to give it. They have their reasons, but it still hurts on a human level.

 

We’ve also been in situations where we refused to be the person someone else thought we should be. Rejection happens to all of us, and we have several choices of what to do about it.

 

When I read the scriptures in John, I felt so bad for Jesus. I thought, “Don’t they get it? Jesus is the son of God. Why are they being so stupid and so mean?” These people had been following Jesus, but then when he actually required a commitment from them, they said no. It kind of broke my heart. But then I kept reading and saw exactly how Jesus handled the rejection. It’s how we need to handle it as well.

 

After the people stopped listening to Jesus, he just moved on. He was in Jerusalem, but he moved away. It says in John 7:1: “After these things, Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him.”

 

Then when it was time for one of the yearly feasts, his brethren thought he should go to the feast in Jerusalem with them,  but he told them to go on ahead. He wasn’t going to do what they wanted him to do, just because they thought he should. He did what God wanted him to do, and we need to be doing the same.

 

As it turns out, Jesus did go to the feast in Jerusalem, but he went privately. God sent him to Jerusalem, directly to the temple, where he preached the gospel of God, like he always did, with boldness.

 

Jesus didn’t stop preaching. He didn’t stop speaking the truth in love. He didn’t stop calling a spade a spade. When he saw corruption, greed, and unrighteousness, he plainly exposed it. Jesus wasn’t afraid.

 

Even when those closest to him rejected and criticized him, he didn’t stop doing what God’s Word said to do. He didn’t let rejection change him. As far as this section of John tells us, it doesn’t even look like he allowed himself to be sad about the situation. What a great attitude!

 

Jesus could instantly turn his eyes on God and do the next thing with joy. That’s amazing to me, and I want to have that kind of mindset as well. Jesus didn’t quit or let himself be weakened by rejection. He stayed strong.

 

When we get rejected by people who don’t want to be around us or by those who don’t think we’re acting like they want us to act, we can do what Jesus did and just let them go.

 

We replace the rejector with the lover, Jesus. The words to an old Christian hymn ring true here: This hymn was written in 1922 by Helen Lemmel and was inspired by a tract written by the missionary Isabella Trotter:  

 

Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full, in his wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of his glory and grace

 

 

Love, Carolyn

 

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