Door Posts

Several months ago, my sister heard on a television broadcast that a security guard in a local penitentiary was killed in the line of duty. In an effort to try to escape the jail, two inmates had overpowered the guard who ended up getting killed in the process. One of the inmates plead guilty and the other plead innocent. Now there is a court hearing to bring justice in this situation. My sister was thinking, “Why do I need to know this? It doesn’t concern me!”

I want to point out that our actions DO concern everyone around us and anyone, even remotely, can be affected by our actions. Listen to this carefully.

Because this guard (unknown to my sister) was killed by those two prisoners, my sister’s life was affected. The son of the guard who was killed has to appear in court on behalf of his father. The son of the guard is married to the daughter of a man who recently was married to my sister’s husband’s sister (sister-in-law). Since this man has to appear in court, my sister’s sister-in-law has to watch the grand-children. This sister-in-law was supposed to pick up her parents in an assisted living situation and take them to the doctor but since this sister-in-law couldn’t pick them up because of having to watch the grandchildren, my sister had to go and pick up her mother- and father-in-law and take them to the doctor.

So, because this prisoner guard was killed, my sister was directly affected even though it appeared that it was just another sad incident which was of no affect to her, it did affect her directly.

My question is this, “How many things happen in our lives or actions in our lives do we directly, or indirectly, as the case may be, how many things directly affect someone who thinks they have no affect on anyone. This tells me that everyone, everyone, is important. What you do today, who you come into contact with either directly or indirectly, affects everyone around you.

You make a difference. The decisions you make today will affect someone or several people down the line. This unhappy incident of the guard’s life affected indirectly at least four families, maybe even more. No man is an island. In other words, everything you do today WILL affect others around you so don’t think you are insignificant. You are having an impact on not just individuals but whole families—whole families.

Yeah, it’s time for a change. That’s what happened with the appearing of Jesus at the time He was born and lived on the earth. “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.” (John 1:14). We were beholding a person who was sent to change us for all of eternity. With his determination of purpose, “He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantage of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the tme came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human!” (Phil 2:6-7)  God Himself put on change, actually became His creation. So why can’t we change, I ask myself? The small changes God desires of us are nothing in comparison to the changes He underwent.

How did the disciples of Jesus identify the changes that they were undergoing were changes God wanted them to make? How did they know? Many today would say, “Well that’s not God!” or they would say, “This is not God!” or they would say, “That’s not my God!” We’ve heard it said before. People say, “Well that’s not in my bible!” or they say, “God didn’t tell ME that!”

These comments are comments made by people who are not easily moved or changed. Yet, what Jesus required of his disciples IMMEDIATELY!?  ”Follow me!” He said. The fishermen immediately left their boats and nets and followed Jesus without question.  At that time, the Holy Spirit had not fallen upon them. They, of course, were drawn by the Father, but they were compelled to take the step and follow this man who was not just another “good-looking” guy. The scriptures tell us that the  appearance of the savior would be an appearance which would not draw a crowd because of good looks. The disciples dared to change, to take a step and follow a man who was simply asking them to follow Him. Are we as open to change? Are we willing to lay down what it is that we think is so o o important to follow after what “the wind of the Holy Spirit” is telling us? I’m not saying it is easy. But we can’t negate something just because we ourselves haven’t experienced it before.

Sometime watch a mountain stream or a fast-flowing river. The water will cut away, cut away, and cut away more, at the riverbanks. It is easy to see how the water breaks down the banks and starts to make it’s own path. It is unpredictable where the water will go, except for “sea level” you may not know where the river will make it’s path. So you have to be ready for change.

One sign of change was in Acts 10:46, “…they heard them speaking in tongues, heard them praising God.” Let’s read that portion of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 10 verses 45 and 46, “The believing Jews who had come with Peter couldn’t believe it, couldn’t believe that the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out on ‘outsider’ Gentiles, but there it was—they heard them speaking in other tongues, heard them praising God.”

It was time for change because everybody began to speak in tongues when the Holy Spirit fell on everybody in the assembly AND they started speaking in other tongues, other languages. Please note that after this happened with Peter, it says in Chapter 11 that the Apostles and brothers that were in Judaea heard about this, that the gentiles received the word of God just like the Jewish brethren had and it says, “they contended with Peter.” (11:2) That means that they hadn’t heard about this happening with the Gentiles yet so they were arguing with Peter about this, whether this was possible.

Doesn’t that sound like arguments we get into with “the brethren” (our Christian brothers and sisters)? “Oh,” we say, “but this is much different. They were talking about something that just took place then and it doesn’t pertain to us today!”

Oh!!!! It doesn’t? When did the Word of God become obsolete because “the truth” doesn’t pertain to us today?

There are so many religious arguments. Because of our inability to get resolution to “issues” we now have Baptists, Lutherans, Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodists, and many more. All of these denominations “parked” on certain doctrines; and made these doctrines the “whole truth.” In Chapter 11 of the book of Acts, notice that God put Peter in a trance before the Gentile issue came up. He put Peter in a trance and told him not to be concerned about “clean” or “unclean.” (In order to get us to accept and understand things God has to ‘knock us out’—put us in a trance where our obstinate “why” doesn’t get in the way to seeing what God is trying to tell us!) He told Peter to take and eat because all of this “uncleanness” of food was cleansed by God (baptized in the Holy Spirit). In this testimony, a man (Gentile) in a dream, was to summon Peter. In the end of this “argument” (Acts 11:18) when all of the Jewish brethren heard this testimony they held their peace and glorified God—in other words, the opposition was silenced. Peter’s Jewish brothers decided, after much deliberation and arguing, that God was a God of the Gentiles, too, granting repentance to life.

This was one of many “course changers.” The Jewish brethren were taken through things like this time and again which helped to define their path, their direction. When we are constantly confronted by “game changers” do we hear it? Or are we closed to the possibility that there might be something out there we don’t know about yet? In Acts 19 there were some people who were disciples of John the Baptist and they had been baptized by John the Baptist to repent. Once these disciples who had heard John the Baptists teachings and now were introduced by Paul to Jesus the Christ it says in Acts 19:5-6 that “when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.”

Notice after this what happened. There were about twelve of these disciples of John the Baptist. These guys, along with Paul, went into the local Synagogue there and for three months they argued and disputed with the rabbis concerning this kingdom of God which had come upon these twleve disciples. It says that some resistance began to form as some of them began spreading evil rumors through the congregation about the christian way of life. So Paul left, taking the disciples with him and he set up shop in a neighboring town for two years, teaching daily.

These people who began to speak evil of “the way” were opposed to the changes required that came with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. God did powerful things through Paul there, things quite out of the ordinary. People started taking pieces of clothing—handkerchiefs and scarves and the like—that had touched Paul’s skin and then touching the sick with them. The touch did it—they were healed and whole.

When things like this happen today the general concensus is unbelief. The attitude is, “Yeah, right.” We have become just as callous and hardened as were the Pharisees of the day when Jesus was on the earth. We sit there and condemn the Pharisees and those who opposed Jesus and his disciples in that day but aren’t we doing the same thing? Having the same attitude? Someone speaks in tongues but our religion says, “that’s of the devil!” (in the apostle’s day that was normal). Someone takes a trip to the throne of God and comes back and tells all kinds of heavenly visions and they are criticized, “It’s of the devil!” But what did people say about Daniel in the Old Testament; about Ezekiel who was jetisoned all over the universe and heavens; What about the apostle John who described profound things taking place in the future?; today when people go to heaven we are quick and it’s easy to condemn them because we haven’t experienced it ourselves? How come we do this?

We have this type of response because we would have to “change” our theology—we would have to “change” our perspective—we become insecure because we don’t appear to have “all the answers.”

We are walking in a time when the groanings and nudgings of the Holy Spirit are very important in our daily walk. Think about this: when the wind blows, you can hear it; you can feel the wind; but you can’t see it with your eyes. Are you “hearing” the Holy Spirit? Are you “feeling” the Holy Spirit? This is what the Lord is saying about “sensing” the Holy Spirit in John 3:8. Our future with the Lord is unfolding right before us. Our future is coming to pass, are we going to accept change so we fulfill the whole purpose of God?

As soon as someone says something about “Prayer” it’s as if a snooze boring button goes off in our heads and we immediately shut it out. Blah blah blah blah blah!…..not interested! Well, bear with me and listen to a thought path.

One time, I was sitting in a “prayer” meeting and whoever was praying started listing the “sins” of the person that was being “prayed” for. I was convicted in my spirit so I said out loud in the group, “Is this gossip?” Immediately people came back at me and said, “Are you accusing us of gossiping?” I stammered and was stunned. I guess I asked the wrong question. This type of thing happens more than it should. We are well meaning in our prayers but the prayers are sometimes misdirected and misguided.

I know a person who has visitations from the Lord quite a lot. She has all kinds of dreams and vivid visions. One night while she was sleeping, she felt someone tap her on her side. The tap to her side was hard enough that it woke her up. She was puzzled. But looked and knew that the visitation was from the Lord. This person said to the Lord, “Why did you wake me up?” The Lord told her this was a wake-up call! She and another well meaning lady had been praying a certain prayer for a mutual friend. He told her that she needed to stop praying the prayers she was praying for this mutual friend because, “You don’t want me to answer that prayer. The consequences would be devastating to her! So stop praying that prayer!”

I thought, “WHAT?” Hearing this caused me to delve into the questions, “What, then, are effectual prayers? What, then, are we supposed to be praying? I had never heard that before, “Stop praying that! I might answer it?” Some of the scriptures that flooded into my mind were, “…The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” (James 5:16)  James 4:2-3 says, “…You fight and war, yet you do not have because you don’t ask, you ask and don’t receive because you ask badly, that you may consume it upon your lusts….” So I asked myself, “Why, when I ‘pray’ for someone are they not immediately healed, pick up their mat and just walk away?” In this case it is clear that while we pray, God looks at the real motive of our heart in the prayer. So if we’re “asking amiss” or praying the wrong prayers. Then, I ask myself, ”What is the correct prayer? How do I pray the ‘effectual’ prayer?”

I went to the scriptures and looked at what Jesus was doing when people around him were healed. What did he pray? When did he reach out and heal people? What did he address in his prayer for their healing? I came up with some interesting observations.

In one instance Jesus said, “Go your way and sin no more.” The person went away healed so obviously the sin this person was sinning had caused the sickness. This shows us that some sicknesses are caused from sinning. So if that person had come up to you and said, “I’m sick, could you pray for my healing?” If we prayed for the healing, that would have been a wrong prayer. So we need to be sensitive to every situation. Every instance of prayer needs to be the prayer of the moment, not just a prayer that we “usually” pray for someone.

In another place Jesus told his disciples, “This man was blind so that the glory of God could be revealed today.” This person was blind all of his life, not because of sin in his life but so that the glory of God would be revealed. Would I have waited long enough on the Lord to get a word of knowledge from Him that I would then know what the Lord wanted to do with this person?

Another time Jesus stooped down and made mud with dirt and spittle and put it on the man’s eyes and he was able to see.

In another instance the sisters of Lazarus told Jesus that he was too late; that Lazarus had been dead four days in the tomb and that his body was probably stinking by now. But Jesus said, “Lazarus, come forth.” Notice that he specifically called Lazarus? He was careful because the rest of the people in the cemetery would have arisen too, but he called out Lazarus specifically.

In one instance Jesus’ disciples tried to cast a devil out of someone so the person would be healed and they couldn’t do it. Jesus said that this one only comes out with much prayer and fasting. So because of Jesus’ so-far sinless life and his relationship with his Father, He was able to say a word and the man was healed, the devils left.

So in every case, it is imperative that we carefully consider what the motive of our own heart is because if we don’t be honest with ourselves for our motives, God IS honest with us. Jesus’ constant confession was to give glory to His Father at every turn. “I do what I see my Father doing.” Jesus, being the word of God in the flesh, kept giving glory to the Father. If HE, being the word of God, was giving glory to the Father, how much more should we give glory to God where glory is due? The healing belongs to the Lord. We are to carry out our part and be ever mindful that the outcome really has nothing to do with us. Yes, we must take a step of faith and do what the Spirit tells us to do, but then the result is all up to the Father. And timing is everything.

One of my nephews had a word of knowledge that a certain person was going to be healed eventually. I asked the nephew if he could tell me under whose ministry this person would be healed. The nephew came back and said, “God told me that this person would be healed under God’s ministry.”  Let me tell you, that shut my mouth immediately. I realized that I was guilty of trying to “share God’s glory.” And the scriptures specifically say that He shares his glory with no one. So the motive of my heart was revealed in that statement from what the Lord told my nephew.

So…..getting back to that original thought, what is our prayer to be? I’ve concluded that I don’t know how to pray for people. How could I when I don’t even know what to pray for myself? We broke into “prayer partners” at this meeting I was at and I was moved to just pray in tongues. I couldn’t begin to know what was behind this particular situation. When somebody is in complicated circumstances and wants you to pray for them, what do you pray? Let’s say someone has arthritis really bad and is in a lot of pain, what should be your prayer for that person? Your prayer should be the confession of the truth, confession of the scriptures, and not just any truth or any scripture. We “ask and do not receive because we ask amiss…” Much of the time we make up prayers we’ve heard others praying and not by the Holy Spirit. Praying for the person with arthritis, my mind jumps to pray for healing for the man. But my question is, what does that involve? I don’t want God to have to force me to sit and be quiet before him by allowing me to put myself in an adverse physical condition because I won’t “judge myself” and get quiet before the Lord and seek him without having to place me there because I was too busy to get there without judgment. It says in Isaiah 26:9b-10, “…for when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Let favor be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness he will still deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord.” When the judgments of God come, it’s because we haven’s heeded the circumstances around us enough to judge our own self so the Lord has to step in with adverse conditions to make us turn our head toward Him and see Him.

One holy man I know lists people he knows and prays, “God bless so and so.” He goes down a whole list and prays that God will bless them. We might think that is a shallow prayer but think about it. If you are the recipient of a blessing, isn’t the blessing wonderful?

Another aspect of “prayer” is this: what we “think” about something has an impact on whatever it is we’re thinking about. Let me say that again, what we “think” about something has an impact on whatever it is we’re thinking about. Yes it does. Our God is a “creator God.” His WORD became flesh—became a person. What He spoke came into being, physically. That is the kind of God we have. He says that he knew us before we were even formed in our mothers’ womb. Being His creation, we have the same characteristics as our God, the same create ability. Scientifically, it has been proven that our thoughts or the intentions of our hearts have a great impact on plant life around us. The DNA of our cells has been proven to be impacted by our thoughts. Thus, I see “prayer” as the impact of our thoughts on everything that has anything to do with us. Whatever we think about is impacted positively or negatively by our thoughts. Paul says to pray without ceasing. Paul didn’t have the scientific evidence then about what we know now. We must rein in our thoughts, control our thoughts, like the reins of a horse. The reason? Because our thoughts are impacting the people and situations going on all around us, the physical universe AND the spiritual universe. We, by our thoughts (or prayers), are impacting everything and everyone associated with us. It is easy to pray without ceasing because prayer has to do with our thoughts, our creative thoughts. Whatever we are thinking is impacting whatever people and situations we think about and how we think about it.

Sometimes, our concept of the impact of a thought is somewhat hampered by our physical experience. If I want to walk down the block, in my physical concept of walking the block, it will take me about five minutes to get to the end of the block. Consequently, it appears to me to travel from one end of the block to the other end takes a little bit of time. We tend to equate that concept of traveling physically with our ability to travel. However, thought travel has no time limit, no physical restraint. The thought BOOM! is there! To think it is to create it.  

So prayer has everything to do with taking every thought captive. We must captivate our thoughts and direct our thought process because of the creative ability words and thoughts have on everything around us. If we are observing a situation and judging a situation negatively, then accumulatively, over time, if we keep thinking the same negative thought, we give ascent to the negative thought over and over and over again, we will bring it into being. If you keep telling someone, “You’re going to fall! You’re going to fall! You’re going to fall!” Pretty soon it comes to pass because our “creative” word helped to bring that into being. This is why we must be careful about “what we pray for” because we will bring the wrong thing to pass—something that is not according to the will of God, but the will of man, the will of man’s thought.

We conceivably bind people up with our wrong thoughts (prayers) because we are not God. We don’t see the whole picture. We only see a small portion of the picture and think we know what the issues are. We judge the situation and bring our own thought (prayer) to bear on the situation, thus binding up the person or the situation with our own small thoughts. We must take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. See situations as Jesus sees them and most of the time we don’t see it has Jesus sees it so we are better off praying in our prayer language—leave our own mind out of it and let the mind of Christ. For the Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words…….

The Message Bible is profoundly explicit in the “judgment” department. I want to quote Matthew 7:1-12.

“Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults–unless, of course, you want the same ttreatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? It’s this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor. Don’t be flip with the sacred. Banter and silliness give no honor to God. Don’t reduce holy mysteries to slogans. In trying to be relevant, you’re only being cute and inviting sacrilege. Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This isn’t a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in. If your child asks for bread, do you trick him with sawdust? If he asks for fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his place? As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing. You’re at least decent to your own children. So don’t you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better? Here is a simple rule of thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself wht you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God’s Law and Prophets and this is what you get…..

I came into a situation where accusations were hurling everywhere and seemed to me to reverberate all around the planet! And it was because someone felt wronged and they wanted everybody to know how wronged they were. Notice here I’m saying “WRONGED.” They were so justified in the sharing of how wronged they were that it justified them to steal and lie to try to get the point across. Have we come to a point where we think our own wrong behavior is justified because we feel someone has “sinned” by dealing badly with us? Does our own sin cancel out the other person’s wrong? NO.

We need at all times to guard our own behavior because as far as it concerns me, God is watching ME, not the other person who you think has so blatantly wronged you! God is watching ME! What behavior am I exhibiting? Is my behavior Godly behavior?

Then we say, “Well, that person deserves what he gets because he has brought this upon himself.” This too is wrong thinking. In our thinking we have judged the person and our own attitude is still wrong. We’re still on a crusade to justify our own selves and our GOOD behavior. Wow! NOT…….. Matthew 24:10 says, “And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.” “Well,” we say, “You brought this upon yourself.” Well, that may be true, but it is not for me to say that or think it. It is a “judgment” statement and when we judge, we put ourselves in the seat of GOD. There is only one judge and lawgiver.

I was indirectly involved in a planetary dispute yesterday. I was accused of things that were not true, and then on the way home hit a deer in the highway. Smashed up the side of my car. Did this have anything to do with negative thinking brought my way, so much so,that the negativity smashed in the side of my car and would like to have killed me? When we have bad thoughts about another person, that’s what it is doing.

“Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those  weep” (Romans 12:15)

I always wondered how I should respond to people when there was a death in their family. Now I know. It says in this scripture that you are to weep with those who weep. When you meet up with these people after a death the best thing you can do is just shut your mouth and BE. When they cry, you cry. When they rejoice, you rejoice. When someone dies, the relatives of that deceased person need a listener. They don’t need your advice. They need for you to just sit and listen to them—and if they don’t say anything, then you don’t say anything either!

In the Jewish tradition, when people go into the home of the relatives of a deceased person, the visiting people don’t say anything until the deceased person’s relatives say something first. They come into the situation with the mind to simply listen to the grieving person because that is part of the grieving process. They don’t need your advice or your musings about where the dead person is, what their accomplishments were while they were alive, or anything about the person. Your response to the relatives are that you are dsorry for their loss and then weep with them when they weep and rejoice with them when they rejoice.

I know from my own experience of the passing of my own mother and father. The thing I remember about the whole ordeal was there were people who took the time to come to the funeral. I remember those who took the time to write a card of sympathy. I remember there were people who simply came and helped out with menial tasks that we were too grief-stricken to tend to. I remember people who came and laughed about things with us when the burden of sorrow was so great. They rejoiced with us! I experienced this so I know from first-hand knowledge that that verse in Romans 12:15 is a good thing.

Read this article slowly and contemplate every sentence, every word. What is hospitality? Is it important? The dictionary says that hospitality is the friendly reception and treatment of guests or strangers. It is the quality or disposition of receiving and treating guests and strangers in a warm, friendly, and generous way. Words that are synonyms of hospitality are: warmth;  cordiality; geniality; and friendliness. It looks to me like hospitality is important. Since this is so, isn’t it our duty to be parties in agreement with these words?

There is a proverb which says, “A man who has friends must show himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.  (Proverbs 18:24) Another description of proper behavior is found in Romans 12. There is a description in this chapter of the book of Romans about behavior that is pertinent to our daily lives. Again, this rendition is taken from the “Message Bible.”

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life–and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him. In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we’re talking abot is Christ’s body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and functn as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn’t amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ’s body, let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully  comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren’t If you preach, just preach God’s Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don’t take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don’t get bossy; if you’re put in charge, don’t manipulate; if you’re alled to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don’t let yourself get irritated with them or despressed by them. Keep a smile on your face. Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; pracdtice playing second fiddle. Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality. Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down. Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up. Make friends wit nobodies; don’t be the great somebody. Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.” Our Scriptures tell us that if you see yoru enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he’s thirsty, get him a drinki. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Gon’t let evil get teh best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.”

So…..when we are not hospitable to even our enemies, we’re in the wrong. Someone’s bad behavior toward you does not mean you are hateful back to that person. Quite the contrary. Someone’s bad attitude towards our hospitality is none of our concern. As far as it depends on us, we are to bless them, don’t hit back and not do evil in return…..That’s something to think about.

Notice sometime when someone starts to whisper. What happens? It’s as if there is an automatic radar attachment to our bodies and we all be quiet to find out what the whisperer is saying. There is a scripture that says, “The words of a whisperer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.” (Proverbs 18:8)

When we hear the words of a whisperer (another name for this is talebearer), when we hear these words, they go down into the innermost parts of the belly as “wounds.” It is wrong to be a talebearer but someone who listens to the words of the gossip is injured and wounded in the innermost being for having listened to these “tales.”

This weekend, the Lord gave me music that expunges these wounding words from our innermost being and brings healing, probably to the innermost parts of your body, liver, kidneys, etc. I’ve called the CD “The Whisperer” – If you want to purchase the CD ($18 USD) contact me at teresa@crevierministries.org or go to my website www.crevierministries.org and purchase it off of my catalog page there.

I was sent an article that is passing around the Internet that I believe is profound and an indictment against our education system. I went to a Catholic gradeschool where we were taught about Adam and Eve at the same time we studied the “neanderthal man” and the cave men in science? How the teachers could teach that simultaneously, I will never figure out.

Today, I’m trying to remember when I woke up to the fact that the science and history we were taught from grade school all the way through high school was laden with the opinions of authors and their varied interpretations of these subjects. I’m asking myself when did I realize that an author wrote a book according to a particular bias. They dwell on “pet ideas” and use their own interpretation of what was important in history or what was important in science to bring their particular bias right into the classroom. I almost feel like I was dumbed down and brainwashed into a bias against history and a bias against the sciences. 

Instead of learning just the names of all of the presidents in our American History classes, why weren’t we taught and drilled in the important things which each president stood for? The lives of each and every one of the presidents is totally fascinating but it was presented in a “boring history class” format so it became a drudgery of the learning of a few facts but nothing was ever connected. If we don’t really study history, we are destined to repeat it!

When I went to college and studied music history, and then I studied the history of western civilization, I became insatiably hungry to create a huge chart and see what was happening in the United States at the same time as the European History, the same as the history in the rest of the world. But because of the study load at the time in college, I had to put that aside. So much so that even today, I’m still trying to put things together. Since then, I’ve read the history of the United States from a Christian perspective which is very very interesting. Peter Marshall and David Manuel wrote a series of histories of the United States having done research from the Library of Congress. Had I studied a history like theirs, I would have been very interested.

So, now, when I’m presented with quotes from various presidents, it is interesting to hear what they had to say because of the crisis the world is in today.  What were their solutions to problems and why did they choose to answer problems the way they did?

Today, there are a lot of people pointing fingers at people, pointing fingers at governments, pointing fingers at countries, continents, or nations. But our response really should be to return to our roots. We must find out in a time of upheaval and unrest, what the United States was going through in the mid- to late 1700s, to cause them to come up with the solutions they did. Rather than point a finger, they did something about it.

Why did congress see it important to have laws for citizens to have the right to bear arms? Why did they see the need that citizens be granted freedom of speech? Why did they set in place three separate branches of government? Why?

I think it is important that we know about this president and every president. What were the issues they were facing and what was their solution to the problems? Here are some interesting facts about one president, Thomas Jefferson. These were facts floating around the internet.

FACTS ABOUT THOMAS JEFFERSON

At 5, began studying under his cousins tutor.

At 9, studied Latin, Greek and French.

At 14, studied classical literature and additional languages.

At 16, entered the College of William and Mary.

At 19, studied Law for 5 years starting under George Wythe.

At 23, started his own law practice.

At 25, was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses.

At 31, wrote the widely circulated “Summary View of the Rights of British America ” and retired from his law practice.

At 32, was a Delegate to the Second Continental Congress.

At 33, wrote the Declaration of Independence …

At 33, took three years to revise Virginia’s legal code and wrote a Public Education bill and a statute for Religious Freedom.

At 36, was elected the second Governor of Virginia succeeding Patrick Henry.

At 40, served in Congress for two years.

At 41, was the American minister to France and negotiated commercial treaties with European nations along with Ben Franklin and John Adams.

At 46, served as the first Secretary of State under George Washington.

At 53, served as Vice President and was elected president of the American Philosophical Society.

At 55, drafted the Kentucky Resolutions and became the active head of Republican Party.

At 57, was elected the third president of the United States …

At 60, obtained the Louisiana Purchase doubling the nations size.

At 61, was elected to a second term as President.

At 65, retired to Monticello …

At 80, helped President Monroe shape the Monroe Doctrine.

At 81, almost single-handedly created the University of Virginia and served as its first president.

At 83, died on the 50th anniversary of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence.

John F. Kennedy held a dinner in the white House for a group of the brightest minds in the nation at that time. He made this statement: “This is perhaps the assembly of the most intelligence ever to gather at one time in the White House with the exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”

Statements by Thomas Jefferson:

“When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.”                   - Thomas Jefferson

“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”  - Thomas Jefferson

“It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.”  - Thomas Jefferson

“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”   - Thomas Jefferson

“My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.”   -  Thomas Jefferson

“No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. “    -  Thomas Jefferson

“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”    - Thomas Jefferson

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”   - Thomas Jefferson

“To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”   - Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:       “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property – until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

Again I ask, What happened? Why did we not learn what Thomas Jefferson said while we were in our history lessons? Instead of learning just the names of the presidents we should have been taught what they said!!

Sunday, October 9, 2011, 10p

You think, “Oh, that’s just a television program, it’s not real.” Sometimes you think, “That’s not real. I have never seen that or experienced that myself so it can’t be real.” You think?

I want to tell you something that you might think, “That’s off the charts! How can that be? You were just imagining that.”  I have a great imagination but I’ve never had something like this “experience” before. Are you ready?

First of all, I want to give a kind of perspective. I am just a regular person trying to get through life without too many hiccups along the way, like most people; and…..I was in college in the 70s. That dates me. Wait! Wait! Wait! Don’t shut me out because of that. What I have to tell you is not “age sensitive.”  I was in college during the time when all of the commotion was going on on college campuses throughout the United States – maybe it was worldwide, I don’t know. I can just tell you my own experience. I was “liberal mind influenced” during that time and began to take philosophy classes in college. Mind you, I came off of a farm in rural America where philosophy is something that is not “read about” it is something that is deeply engrained into the core of your life by experience—experience on a farm—experience outside of big cities and that corruptive influence. The most corrosive television was probably Star Trek. During this time C.S.Lewis came out with the books called “The Chronicles of Narnia.” That was the extent of my imagination exercises outside of reality. We walked bean fields and chopped the weeds with a corn knife. I think buttonweed seeds landed in that bean field from every part of South Dakota because those weeds were so thick. Walking the rows was laborious, hot, sticky, and sometimes painful because of blisters from pulling weeds, and sometimes injury from a chop gone astray hitting your foot or leg instead of the weed. That was before weed spray, bug spray, and genetic modification.

Secondly, if you look back on your life, you see a kind of pattern working it’s way through your life. When your age is in your 20s, you think you know everything so you’re kind of unteachable, unreachable. You have ideals you to which you want to aspire and you experiment with things you couldn’t experience while you were under the roof of your parents. It starts with the college experience. Then you graduate from college and you’re pretty much on your own, getting your footing. You delve into the working world and discover over several years what you’re good at. Many people decide to get married and start families. Some get going on a career. By the time your age hits your 30s, you’re ready to conquer the world. You want to give yourself to an “occupation” with vitality and energy. By the time you hit your 40s you’re ready for a new challenge so you step into management or you begin to see the fruit of the influence of your life upon your children. When you hit your 50s, you start to reap in your body what the 20s, 30s and the 40s experience did to you and by the time you’re 60, you either have continued energy or you start to see that your body is wearing down a little. You may not have the same energy you used to have. That’s as far as I can go by “experience.”

In the 1970s, I was in my 20s so I was basically getting my footing and began delving into the work world. My original plan was to get at least a Master’s Degree in music but I was derailed from that goal because of some choices I made. Although I had the influence of the New York Juilliard Music School caliber musicians and Mannes School of Music teachers, my music experience during that time was to be an accompanist for amateur and professional musicians and teach piano and do secretarial work on the side. Methodically my “grand ideas” in the youthfulness of my 20s was being dashed. However, there was a thread of activity occurring during that time. I had an encounter with God in the mid-70s that caused me to get involved with some what I call “street musicians” who played guitar. I was a classically trained musician which means that I played music of the “dead masters” (Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, etc.). I spent my time learning the compositions of these dead masters and perfecting their style—not realizing that I was developing my own. As I played extemporaneous music with these street guitar players, I began to get “freedom from the page.” What I mean by that is that I became a musician who could play music and songs with charts, chords only. Put some chords in front of me and I began to play like all of the pop culture musicians of the day, like “The Carpenters”—not big to some but to me they were big until Karen Carpenter died in the 70s. Tragic.

Okay, let’s jump to the 1990s, after the experience of my “wild 30s” in Atlanta Georgia managing an internal department at a Big 8 CPA Firm, Touche Ross (middle management), I came back to South Dakota. South Dakota is hidden from most eyes of the world. When you say, “South Dakota” people say, “Where is that?” or they say, “Where in North Dakota did you say you lived?” or they say, “Isn’t that where all the Indian Reservations are and the buffalo roam?” or they don’t remember where you are from because it is a State in the United States that is rarely heard of or from; or they say, “Is that in the United States?” Yeah, it’s true.

The reason I’m telling you all of this is because I wanted to let you know that “I have been there and got the t-shirt.” I wasn’t born yesterday. I’m a regular person just like the next guy. I bought cars, sold cars, bought furniture, stepped into relationships and walked out of them, driven to many States in the United States on vacations, bought a house, been on the school board, experienced city councils, graduated from college, held jobs, etc. Like you, I’ve done it. As we say in some of our “porch bunny” coffee’s, “Just a regular guy trying to live my life.”

So recently at a “midnight rendezvous” with some of our nephews, my sister and I had left-overs and we pulled them out, along with Perrier, crackers and cheese. These nephews had just gotten finished with one of their weight-lifting workouts and came over. They all started remarking about the late 90s. In the late 90s, these nephews who had gathered that night were between the ages of seven and twelve years of age. One of the nephews had not even been born 14 years ago. Now they are between 19 and 23 years of age. One of them said, “I wonder what that experience we all had back then in the late 90s will be like “after education.” I said to him, “What are you talking about ‘after education’? We did experience it after education!” His aunts and uncles did experience this after education. Now you can see why I laid the ground work above for you to see what kind of life we were experiencing up to the point of this experience.

How all of this came up anyway is that we are inviting the speaker to come and speak to our group now, who over ten years later, was instrumental in our lives taking a course change during the late 90s.

Here it is. These are things that we actually experienced so if you try to tell me, “You’re crazy.” I beg to differ with you. These are real experiences.

This man prayed for one of my nephews at the time and it appeared to us as if this nephew had fallen asleep. He just fell down on the floor right there and went to sleep. He was 8 years old. When he woke up he told us that he sat on the lap of Jesus and Jesus was showing some things on Jesus’ dresser in his mansion in heaven. This nephew said that he saw streets that were made of gold and rows and rows of mansions. Some of them were not completed yet, but some were. This nephew was crying while he was saying this because he was so moved (as an 8-year-old boy) with the things he saw.

This man prayed for another nephew and this nephew looked up (age 14) and saw the great cloud of witnesses looking down on us as we were experiencing these things.

Several people got up, after this man had prayed for them, and were walking to a different part of the room and suddenly these people dropped as if dead right to the floor. When they woke up they said they had walked into an angel who was guarding a portal of entry in that part of the room.

One of these nephews told us that God the Father wanted to answer any questions we had. So we started asking questions and he would answer them before the words came out of our mouths!

We asked this nephew to find out from the Lord what was happening with him on his visits to heaven. All of these instances were happening in early 1997,winter months when there was lots of snow on the ground, blizzard weather. This nephew told us that it was the “gift of going to the throne.” The Lord told him at that time that there were only about 200 people in the whole world with this gift but that in coming years many many people would be taken this way and come back with all kinds of heavenly visions.

We aunts, uncles, parents, were scratching our heads and re-evaluating our “theology.” Right away we got a flurry of shunning from the main stream church. We were called heretics. We were called a “cult.” We were attacked from without and within.

So my statement here is “after education” is just as volatile as “before education” – what is that? Before College?

Saturday, October 8, 2011, 10a

I was having a discussion with one of my relatives today. We were talking today about nursing. My niece said that the nursing program at this particular university was very difficult to get into because you have to have a 3.5 grade point average just to get into the program. She said you also have to go through an interview because there are so many people who apply for the nursing major in the universities but only a select few get in.

Last year, when I was in the hospital, having undergone brain surgery, I was a recipient of nursing care. I was absolutely amazed by the compassion and care the nursing staff took for each and every patient. Sometimes there were difficult patients; sometimes there were patients who were very needy; sometimes there were patients who required very little care; but I noticed that the response of the nurses to each and every patient was one of great care and concern.

It was then that I realized that these nurses were actually “called” to be a nurse. A nurse is someone who cares for the sick and the infirm. If this nursing was just something you do  to “occupy” your time, then nursing is not for you. You will be miserable and rude and unable to cope with infirmity and sickness. When you are called to something, you have a passion for it and a patience for it that comes from the heart.

So, the next time someone asks you “what is your occupation?” Think twice before answering. Is what you are doing something you do to simply occupy your time and no other reason? Or are you doing something because you are called to do it? If you are called to something then you will have the patience and endurance for it because the doing of it is something that is motivated from the heart. It is an expression of you that comes from within.