Addictions

In psychology there is a concept of the dynamic between an addicted person and a co-dependent person. The theory is that the co-dependent is just as much to blame for the addict’s behavior as the addict is.  Why?  Because generally the co-dependent is enabling the addict.  They may provide and pay for the alcohol for the alcoholic etc. They don't confront the person in love when they need to so the addiction continues.  Or it might be that the co-dependent stresses out the addict and makes them run to their substance for “peace,” even though it’s a huge lie from Satan that that substance or thing will bring them peace. Of course blaming others and not taking responsibility for one’s own actions is not good, but we all can and do affect each other in many ways. Amen?

Another reason for why an addict remains in their addiction is usually because they are or were rejected by someone close to them, who was supposed to love them but didn't.  The addict then runs to substances to fill the hole inside of them, the void that was left by not being loved by someone. They look to a substance to meet that needs then. They should run to God, but often we look for something tangible to make us feel better.  Some people look to food, others alcohol, others shopping etc. to make them happy and de-stress. But of course the substance or thing doesn't meet their needs.  So then the devil starts lying to them and saying that if they would just increase the intake of the substance that then they will be satisfied. But the Truth is that the substance will NEVER truly satisfy them, it only ends up making them feel worse about themselves.  Nor does another person ultimately ever fully satisfy our souls.  The only one who can truly fill and heal our empty souls is God. Amen!

Augustine said, "Our hearts are restless until they rest in thee."  Amen, yes they are! If you don’t put your anchor in God you will drift through many other things that will only cause you more pain, like a ship tossed on the sea in a storm. Put an anchor in God so your life can be stable and at peace. Amen! Only then will you be at peace.

Don't run to people or substances to get the hole in your heart filled, run to God. Only and always God! Amen :) He is the only being that can bring you total peace, joy, hope and anything that you could ever need!  And if you know an addict, try as best you can to not stress them out. 😉👍🏼

May God bless you all!

Satan Killing Us

Satan wants to kill our spiritual life, so he sends us false teachers. Satan wants to kill our physical health, so he sends us junk food. Satan wants to kill our emotional health, so he sends us stressful situations. And Satan wants to kill our mental health, so he sends us people and commercials to tell us we need to be on medication. But no you don’t! You don’t need mental health medication. Don’t ever, ever listen to false teachers. Don’t eat junk food. 😉 (which is candy, ice cream, soda, cookies and some kinds of chips) And turn to God in the stressful times amen! 👍🏼

May God bless you all!

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit

In Acts 2 the disciples did get the gift of tongues when they were baptized with the Holy Spirit, but I can tell for sure too that Peter got the spiritual gift of teaching as well. He had never given such an eloquent sermon before. But no one ever mentions that Peter received that gift too and how important that was for saving the 3,000 that got saved that day. 😉

The main reason why tongues was the first spiritual gift that all the disciples got at Pentecost was so that they, and everyone else, could clearly see that something was different about them.

Then when the Gentiles got saved in Acts and got the Holy Spirit in Acts they also prayed in tongues. This was a crucial thing to have happen so that Peter, and the other disciples, could clearly see that Gentiles could be saved too. Had that not happened, that the Jewish And Gentile new believers prayed in tongues when they received the Holy Spirit, the early church would not have known so clearly that Gentiles could be saved too.

Before, in the Old Testament, God was just the God of the Jews, but after Jesus died he broke down the barrier dividing wall between the Jews and Gentiles. These two main instances of tongues in Acts mainly served the purpose to show this new reality, that Jews and Gentiles could now be God’s people. That is why Scripture says that tongues were meant to be “a sign.” They were a sign of this new unity between the Jews and Gentiles.

But just because these instances in Acts couple the baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues does NOT mean that the two will always go together. Many make that mistake and then look down on anyone who doesn’t pray in tongues, which results in religious abuse and ostracizing people that we are supposed to love.

Now, when any Christian gets the baptism of the Holy Spirit, they can receive ANY gift of the Holy Spirit. It generally is whatever gift suits them and their personality the best. We are all made differently. Amen? We all love to do different things. Some of us are more inward focused and some of us are more outward focused. God knows what gift is best for each of us that will fit our inner make up the best. It is simply not true that one gift is best for everyone. Everyone gets their own gift to reach different people in different ways. That is why God’s spirit gives us, the church, a variety of different gifts, but all are good and all gifts are EQUALLY important. Amen.

May God bless you all! :)

Walking the Walk

The Christian walk is not just about what we don't do, but also about what we do. We know that Christians are not supposed to do certain things, but what about what we are supposed to do. I think our focus often times is to much on what we aren't supposed to do rather then what we are supposed to do.

I don’t think the Calvinist teaching of “the perseverance of the saints” is biblical because it makes it sound like it will just automatically happen, as if we don’t have to give any effort to persevering in our faith. But there are several verses that say the opposite, that it is not automatic and we do have to try hard to persevere in our faith and make “our calling and election sure.”

I know we are not saved by works but I think God still has expectations of us. We are supposed to love God with our whole heart, mind and soul as believers and we are supposed to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus said if you do not forgive your brother God will not forgive you. The idea there is that if you truly are Christian, you will not hold in-forgiveness against anyone.

We also are to love God with all that we are. Jesus said you can't love God and money and Paul said, "The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." We can choose to love God more then money when we first make a decision to follow Jesus but then later we might choose to love money more and so loose our faith.

It is not about how we begin the race, it is about how we finish. Many begin a walk with God, but few finish it.

Paul said in 1 Cor. 9:24, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize."

Some might say, “but I already have the prize because I got it when I believed in Jesus.” But it will not be evident that you really ran the race with God until you finish your race. If you persevere to the end, then you are truly saved. If you keep your faith in God and always, your whole walk with God, love God with all your heart, mind, soul and body, you then can know that you truly are saved.

James 1:12 says, "When he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life." God does test us and only if we pass tests are we saved, as in if we stay in faith even in hard times and not curse God etc.
Gal. 6:9 says, "Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." Notice the IF. If we do not give up, we will reap the harvest of the crown of life. There are many “if” verses throughout the new testaments.

Hebrews 10:36 says, "You have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised." That does sound very works based if you think about it. Likewise in Revelation Jesus many times says "to him who overcomes" I will give the crown of life etc.

Matthew 24:13 says, "The one who endures to the end will be saved."

Jesus said in John 8:32, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." We have to choose to abide in Jesus' words, the Bible. If we do that, we can know we are his disciples.

And lastly in 1 Cor. 6:10 Paul says, "Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God."

So we can think we are saved all day, but if we are habitually sinning in any of those areas we will not inherit the kingdom of God.

We need to stop thinking that praying the prayer is an easy gold ticket to heaven and we can just float on a lazy river until we get to heaven. That is not the truth and that’s not how a walk with God works. The Christian walk requires sacrifice and purity of heart and tenacity and endurance.

In Mt. 16:24 Jesus says, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." Taking up your cross means being willing to die for Jesus. I hope you love Jesus that much that you really would be willing to die for him. That is the kind of strong faith and crazy love that God wants from us. . :)

Romans 10:9 says, "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

I wonder if the Greek verb in this verse would be better read "if you keep confessing over and over?"

We often think this is a one time deal. That you say one time "Jesus is Lord" and you believe but then after that it doesn't matter what you do or think or believe.

What if this was something we had to do daily. What would it look like if every single day we confessed with our mouth "Jesus is Lord" and lived that out in how we lived our lives.
That would mean our greed isn't Lord, stuff isn't Lord, our stomach and food cravings aren't Lord, sports are not our Lord, our kids are not Lord, our cars and houses are not Lord, the amount of money in our bank account is not Lord, our desire for people to like us is not Lord. No, only "Jesus is Lord." Every day. What if every day we radically lived that out?

May God bless you all!

Jesus is Lord

I wonder if the Greek verb in this verse would be better read "if you keep confessing over and over?"
Romans 10:9 says, "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

We often think this is a one time deal. That you say one time "Jesus is Lord" and you believe but then after that it doesn't matter what you do or think or believe.

What if this was something we had to do daily. What would it look like if every single day we confessed with our mouth "Jesus is Lord" and lived that out in how we lived our lives.

That would mean our greed isn't Lord, stuff isn't Lord, our stomach and food cravings aren't Lord, sports are not our Lord, our kids are not Lord, our cars and houses are not Lord, the amount of money in our bank account is not Lord, our desire for people to like us is not Lord. No, only "Jesus is Lord." Every day. What if every day we radically lived that out?

On Falling Away

Here is an example of when the King James Bible really is the most accurate translation of the Bible:

Phil. 1:6 in the NIV says, “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

But the king James, which was the original and oldest and most correct English translation of the Bible says, “he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

Now “perform it” and “complete it” are two extremely different things. If God merely performs the good work, he is doing his half of helping you but YOU still have to do your half to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” You still have to stay in faith and remain in the vine and love God with your whole heart amen? Yes God will never leave us but we can choose to leave God.

Why is the verse of “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” in the Bible if the teaching of the perseverance of the saints is true? That teaching came from John Calvin, by the way, and he was a major false teacher. He also taught, or wrote, in his massive book I had to read in college, that there is no free will. He taught that some people will go to heaven and some will go to hell and they have no choice in the matter. But the Bible says “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” That means anyone. Not just “the elect.”

So if you believe in free will then you would have to believe salvation can be lost. Because our free will is what enables us to choose to have faith in God but we can “fall from grace,” “make shipwreck of our faith” and fall away from God. We can choose God but we can later choose money or fame or people instead of God. I pray that you don’t, but you could if you wanted to.

Paul said in 1 Cor. 9:27, “I bring my body into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”
Paul of all people thought even he could be cast away by God. Amazing isn’t it. But “pride comes before a fall” and “God gives grace to the humble.” Amen?

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” We need to fear God and remain in him to make our election and calling sure. 👍🏼 So do it. Remain in Jesus all the days of your life!

God bless!

In Love with Food

The best benefit of fasting for 24 hours is that if you are in love with food, food looses its appeal a lot after you fast. I make a joke with a friend that they are going to go make out with their food when eating a thing they love. But seriously, we love food a little too much sometimes. Food is only meant to be a tool to keep us going and give us energy. We are not supposed to be in love with food. We should only be in love with God, amen? Amen :) May God bless you with self control regarding food. 😉👍🏼

Stir Up Your Fire!

🔥Bear Fruit and Stir Up Your Fire 🔥

John 15, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit.”

This verse proves that salvation can be lost. I’m sorry if that makes you mad but the truth often does make people mad. 😉You cannot be in Jesus unless you are saved, but if you bear no fruit this verse says God the father will cut you off.

I think all Christians should take this warning very, very seriously. Like God says in Revelation “if you are lukewarm I will spit you out of my mouth.” Don’t let yourself get lukewarm.

And the parable of the seeds shows that some seed takes root for a time and it grows for a time but then it dies. :( Those are people who get saved but then loose their salvation because they let it get lost.

This is a hard truth but I think it is very much a truth in the Bible. But rather then let it discourage you, let it make you determined to run the race with more vigor, tenacity and fire! Amen. Don’t let yourself get cold! Keep that fire burning inside of you! That fire of love for God and love for people!

Don’t forget how crucial it is to bear fruit! Jesus said, “If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.” The fire in the Bible is generally always the description for hell, so that these branches that whither are thrown into the fire, or these people who get cold and lifeless are thrown into the fire, that is a very serious thing.

How could a person stop remaining in Jesus? Well they go from remaining in Christ, as in keeping their focus on Jesus, to turning their focus to the world and money etc. Jesus said “you cannot love both God and money.”

1 Tim. 6:10 says, “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” 😢

Wandering from the faith means loosing salvation. So we might start out loving God and our fire is hot, but then we get cold, lifeless, lukewarm, dead and cold hearted when we start to love money more than God.

If your lips are starting to turn blue, go sit by a fire! If you can feel your soul starting to get cold, go sit by a fire! Such as my page :) I think my page is a pretty good fire to sit by every day for all y’all. 😉👍🏼🔥

Then Jesus said, “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” Paul often said “walk in a manner worthy of your calling.” If we are called and saved we WILL bear much fruit. If we aren’t bearing a lot of fruit we need to question whether we are really saved or not.

So are you saved for sure? Are you on fire? Or are your lips turning blue because you are cold and the fire has gone out?

When a bonfire is dying you can bring it back to life by stirring up the embers. So stir up the Jesus embers in your spirit! Put some more wood on your fire! Don’t let your fire die out! Amen.

May God bless you all! 😀 And please keep your fire burning and stay alive! :)

How the Holy Spirit Works

We are Saved and Sealed Once with the Holy Spirit but then we can be Filled Many Times with the Holy Spirit throughout our Christian walk.

Jesus said to the disciples in Acts 1, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Many often see Acts 2 and Pentecost as the time when the disciples first received the Holy Spirit. This belief is where the false teaching comes from that when you receive the Holy Spirit you will pray in tongues. But no, they actually received the Holy Spirit in John 20:22. Jesus had said to them, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, so also I am sending you.” When He had said this, He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit."

So what happened at Pentecost? It was not a first receiving of the Holy Spirit for the disciples but an extra filling with the Holy Spirit. They already had the Holy Spirit in them, but this was an extra filling.

And what was the purpose of this extra filling of the Holy Spirit? To witness to and save the lost.
So if someone is genuinely saved AND filled in an extra way with the Holy Spirit, they will be witnessing to the lost, as the disciples did in Acts 2 when they spoke in other tongues.

When people are filled in this extra way with the Holy Spirit is when they use whatever gift the Holy Spirit has given them to witness. For some it is tongues or a word of knowledge but for others it is teaching or mercy or giving etc. Every person has their own gift from the Holy Spirit, as Paul says in 1 Cor. 12. But all gifts are meant to be used to reach the lost for Jesus.

So don't let anyone minimize the gift that you have received from God to accomplish his purpose of reaching the lost.

It is not just when people pray or speak in tongues that the Holy Spirit is upon someone in an extra way. When any believer is using Any of the gifts of the Holy Spirit as a means to more effectively witness to others, they are then filled with the Holy Spirit. The purpose of the Holy Spirit being upon someone, or filling them in an extra way, is that they will then witness and share the gospel. God gives us different gifts to accomplish this one main goal of reaching the lost. But the goal is the same for all of us, to witness or tell others about Jesus. Amen.

I pray that this will be ground breaking for some of you. Maybe your gift has not been recognized very much and you have heard that the only way to be "spirit filled" is to pray or speak in tongues. But no, ANY of the spiritual gifts can shine out when someone is filled with the Holy Spirit.
So go shine your gift and be proud of whatever gift you have received from the Holy Spirit.

If you do not know what your spiritual gift is, here is a complete list of all the gifts:
Prophesying, serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leadership, mercy, word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith, healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits or discernment, speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues, healings, helps, and governments/administration.

Some people have more then one spiritual gift. I believe my gifts are serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leadership, mercy, faith, discernment, and helps. :)

May God bless you all!

Body Image

I thought I would write about body image since Joyce talked about it in a sermon I just watched.  She said "we need to make peace with the body parts we don't like."  lol I thought "amen to that." :) I personally have had an ever growing tummy ever since I went to college and we had an all you can eat buffet 3 meals a day. lol.  And then later I worked at Pizza Hut and then had 2 kids.  So life just happens and you end up not staying the trim person you were as an adolescent, but that's ok.  I remember even when I was playing in baskeball in high school I still wasn't totally happy with my body.  I always wished my abs were more defined.  I guarantee every person you know, no matter how good they look, doesn't like something about their body.

But what does Scripture say about you?  "You are God’s masterpiece. He has created you anew in Christ Jesus, so you can do the good things he planned for you long ago." Eph. 2:10  Amen!

We sould never think little of ourselves because we are God's masterpiece; our hearts, minds and bodies are all God's masterpieces.  :)

And in Psalm 139 David says, "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made."  What does it mean to be fearfully made?  It means God was very careful when he made you.  Think of a brilliant artist like Michelangelo painting a chapel.  Every color he picks out carefully.  Every curve is exactly how the painter wants it to be.  A ton of thought is put into any work of art.  And you are a work of art!  You are God's work of art.  Amen :)

So please don't starve yourself to get skinny.  Don't work out excessively.  10 mintues of walking in place, or going on a walk, a day is good enough.  And when you eat, just don't eat past the point of being full and don't eat when you're not hungry.  It can be as simple as that, and you probably would loose weight if you want to.  But focus more on having a good looking heart rather then a good looking body amen?  Our heart is the main thing that God looks at and cares about.  Our heart is the most important thing about us.  So have a good heart and all other things will follow.  God bless :)

Get on Fire

“Satan isn’t fighting you because you’re weak. He’s fighting you because you’re strong.” Amen!
If Satan wasn't threatened by you, he wouldn't be messing with you.  If you didn't scare him, he wouldn't try to stop you.  If we are lukewarm, Satan leaves us alone; he doesn't care about us.  But when we get on fire, that's when he comes running to try to shut us up. ;)  But don't let that stop you from getting on fire.  Don't let a fear of Satan be greater then a desire to get on fire for God.  Amen!

God I pray that our fire would burn so bright for you that the whole world would see it.  I pray that we wouldn't be timid Christians anymore that hide or are ashamed to speak up for you on our Facebook page or with co-workers or anyone!  God give us a boldness for you!  Help us to not fear man but rather to only fear you and seek to honor you in all that we do.  God don't let us get distracted by people.  Don't let us loose our focus on you when Satan uses people to try to insult us or to bring us down.  Help us to keep that fire burning.  Help us to keep fighting the good fight and running the race as best as we can.  Help us to stay strong in our passion even if other people say we don't have a fire or say we are lacking in anything.  Help us to see our own fire for you even if others minimize it or down play it.  Help us believe we really can be and are on fire for you. :) Help us to not worry if we don't have a certain gift that others have.  You gift us the way you see fit.  AND you give us the gifts that we most want.  Some desire tongues, others desire to teach etc.  God you know what will work best for us.  You know what can get us the most fired up for you.  Not every gift is meant for everyone.  God help us each to use the gift we have to stir up our own fire within us and within others.  Help us to not worry about gifts that other people have but to just focus on our gift and use it to defeat the darkness.  God you know that comparing just distracts us and brings us down.  We get uncomfortable when others are different from us but you created different gifts of your same Holy Spirit to reach different people.  Some reach others with the miraculous gifts and some reach others with teaching.  God help the war to end in the Christian church all over the world between the two sides.  You use both and both are good but one does not have to be what the other is.  We all need to accept being different and be ok with that.  There are different parts to God's body, the church, but all are important and serve great purposes.  Amen :)

May God bless you all!

Mystery Verses

I'm hoping one of you can answer this for me and uncover this mystery.  Why are these verses in the Bible? I’ll say what I think is that some monk added this verses in when he was translating the Bible thousands of years ago and these verses were not supposed to be in the Bible. I don’t know why God allowed them to stay in the Bible though. 

Mark 16:17-18, "These signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”

But not all believers drive out demons and speak or pray in tongues.  And definitely no believers pick up snakes and drink poison and survive, at least I've never heard of anyone successfully doing that. 

And then there are these verses, John 20:22-23, "Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” What?

So the disciples received the Holy Spirit twice?  Why?  Once here and then a second time at Pentecost?  Also verse 23 seems very odd, like I it really seems like a Catholic monk inserted that verse.  It sounds like a very Catholic, and not Biblical, thing to say. It does not seem to line up with the rest of Scripture.  Why would someone be able to hold forgiveness from someone else?  Why would any person be able to forgive the sins of another?  Can't only God do that?

I have a footnote in my Bible that says Mark 16:17-18 is not found in the earliest manuscripts of the Bible.  So did some crazy monk really just sneak in those verses too just to confuse people? Like maybe Satan told him to do that. As well as the verse about humans being able to forgive or not forgive sins?  Because how much confusion have these verses caused?  People literally try to pick up snakes and drink poison because of that verse.  And then in Catholic churches people rely on confession time and their priest forgiving their sins, but can't only God alone forgive our sins?

So I think these 4 verses are not supposed to be in the Bible. But I would love to hear thoughts on why they are or should be. 👍🏼😉

Less Guns, Not More

A news article says “Georgia school board unanimously votes to arm teachers with guns.” My response:
Sure great idea, so kids can grab their guns and shoot more people :( ah. I actually am all for outlawing almost all guns in America, except maybe a basic hand gun pistol. We don’t need to be selling Americans 100 different types of guns. They aren’t in the army. Why the heck do people need guns? They don’t! I have never understood why people need to own guns. Never. I’m not a democrat but I hate guns. Anything that can kill people I hate, which we all should. 👍🏼Thus saith the Lord. Lol but maybe. God wants us safe and the safest thing is to have a whole lot LESS guns floating around our society. A lot less.

Either doctors in American need to STOP prescribing adults AND kids drugs that make them crazy or all gun stores should be shut down. Until one of those things happen the shootings will continue and kids won’t be safe. :(

GO to Church

😇 👼🏻 ⛪ 😇 👼🏻 ⛪ 😇 👼🏻 ⛪ 😇 👼🏻 ⛪
Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” Mt. 16:24-26

There are 5 reasons why you need to go church right there 😉

1. You can’t be a fully effective disciple  of Christ unless you deny yourself and not always do just what you want to do. :)

2. When you try to save your life, or your time and energy, you will loose your life, meaning not have the fullest life you could possibly have. 😉

3. When you loose your life, or give up your time to learn about and worship God, only then will you fully find a good and fulfilling life. Amen :)

4. If you focus only on work and making money but forget about God, what gain will that be if you loose your soul and not finish the race toward heaven? Many begin the race but few end it. “Narrow is the road that leads to life and few are they that find it” and stay on it. 😁👍🏼

5. When you give up some of your time  and encourage others at church ⛪ you will then be encouraged when you need it later on. 😉

So go find a church by you Sunday to attend! Yes church people might not be nice 100 percent of the time but you are not either I’m sure. ;) Give grace to others and just enjoy growing in God, which is best done with others. “2 are better than 1 for if 1 falls down his friend can help him up.” Amen 😁

My Online Church

Hello! Welcome to Pastor Lisa’s church! Lol jk but really ever since 6 years ago when I started this blog I have considered myself an online pastor. I know some people think women can’t be pastors but there actually were female pastors in the early church. 😉

I like to think of this blog as an online church where you can find the best worship songs, sermons and my testimonies, at least I think they are the best. :) If any of the rest of you want to share your testimony on my Facebook please, please do! We would all love, super love to hear it! 🤗😉😁👍🏼 On Facebook I am listed as Lisa Bedrick in Austin, TX.

I pray that anyone who comes to my page will find a full feast of God’s good and wonderful food to eat. I mean spiritual food not literal. 😉 Jesus said to Peter “feed my sheep” 3 times and that has been my primary mission for the past 6 years. I went to a private Christian college and minored in Bible so I finally decided to use that education. The catalyst was the tragic death of my fiancé dying 6 years ago, but that made me refocus my life and focus on God a ton, ton more.

Praise God for Facebook and my blog because it has given me a platform in which to speak, when sadly, most churches in America still will not allow women to speak up front. 😢Maybe they can share a testimony but women are pretty much never allowed to give a sermon. I have always found that to be very sad. The women in church would love to hear from a woman sometimes too. 👍🏼😀

That’s what I like about charismatic churches is that they recognize the verse that in Christ “there is neither male nor female.” Amen? But most Christian women still aren’t allowed to have a voice.  God may you change that in America!

God I pray that women would rise up like mighty warriors for you! I pray that they would believe that they can lead and teach too and that they have great and awesome things to say too! God take away the male dominance in most churches and let women have a voice, your voice God! Give all us women a boldness to speak up for you when we can! Amen. :)

I know there is the verse that women should remain silent in church. I believe was an instruction so they did not disrupt the culture or bring a bad witness to Christianity. Also women in Bible times were usually not educated so that may have also been why Paul told women to be silent in church. But now our culture is not that ancient culture and women are very much educated now. So speak out women! Be bold! But let the men lead too. 😉👍🏼😀Both should be allowed to lead, not just one or the other. May God help us all to have wisdom in this. Amen.

May God bless you all!

My Story of a Broken Time

When I was 22 I lost my virginity to a very slick con artist.  It is amazing though that I made it till 22, given that I was sexually abused when I was young.  But I had intended to save myself for marriage. But along came mr. smooth who had effectively deflowered about 20 other virgin girls and his evil snake charms, essentially, worked on me too.  I never really share this part of my testimony I think because there is so much shame there.  I am fine with telling people when I give my testimony that my dad sexually molested me as a child.  There actually is zero shame there now about that, thanks to years of counseling and the Holy Spirit's work in me, but I do have a lot of shame about this event.  Why?  Well I know now being molested was out of my control and I was just a powerless little child.  I know it was not my fault, but me being an adult in this other situation I should have prevented loosing my virginity.  I feel like I should have been stronger.  Any time someone has sex before marriage there is of course a lot of shame there.  We all know it is wrong.  But women, due to wanting love and maybe having little love available from parents etc., can easily get conned into sex by bad guys who don't really care about them.

When this happened I ironically had just graduated from a private Christian college, Biola University.  I had only been asked on a couple dates while there so I think partly I was disillusioned a bit with my faith and God.  I thought God was going to provide me with my husband at that college, but he didn't.
I also, ironically, had just gone on an amazing missions trip to Taiwan.  I kind of fell in love with a guy on my team but when I expressed my interest he rejected me.

So in this time I was feeling a bit disappointed with God and rejected by people.  Satan had given me the perfect set up to fall.  It was the perfect storm, or really a very unperfect storm of course.

I also decided to take on working 3 jobs in this time.  I was out of college and my student loans had to start getting paid.  Stupid loans. :( lol.  (Parents, start saving for your kids now for college so they won't have laons. :)  It also didn't help that my mom charged me rent for living with her and my step-dad.  And I had a big car payment.  So I got hired at Barnes and Noble, a retail store, and a tutoring center.  This is a good lesson to any of you all, don't try to do too much or you might become a lot more vulnerable to Satan.

So I was tired.  I was burned out.  My retail job had me waking up at 3:30am and getting there at 4am around Christmas time to clean the store up.  What a crazy job huh?  The tutoring job was fun but some of the kids were unruly, as kids can be. :)  The Barnes and Noble job was pretty easy.  I just put books on shelves and loved that. :)

So in the midst of all this, I fell.  My step brother moved in with us, even though he was 28, due to some health issues he was having.  This was my frist time meeting him so it's not like I had grown up with him at all.  My mom had just married my step dad a few years before.  And this step brother was very attractive and we were then stuck living in the same house, so that was a huge recipe for disaster.  I think my mom had way to much faith in me to put me in such a situation.  Way to much faith mom. lol ;)

After the fall I stayed in a relationship with him for a couple months.  I really was hoping to marry him and I hoped he wanted that too.  Yes I know that seems crazy since he was my step brother.   All the while I was going to church and my pastor was boldly speaking about sex outside of marriage and how you can't go to church and be committing sexual sin and think it's ok.  That definitely make me think.   Good job Mike Erre for being so bold in talking about that subject! :)
So I decided to end the relationship.  I had told the guy I loved him and he literally said he didn't love me back.  I realized then he was just using me for what he wanted.  He was just a completely selfish person and didn't really care about me.  So I am very glad I ended it and did not talk to him again after that.
I told my mom what had been going on.  She was oblivous to the whole thing.  So they had him go live with his mom, which is where he should have been from the beginning but oh well.  Perhaps God let that happen so I would have this story to share and maybe it can help some of you.  I hope it does. ;)

After that I was obedient to God in going to back to walking a straight path.  I then got a huge break through from God; God sent me the most amazing job I have ever had.  Literally a month later I was looking on Craigslist for jobs and one listed was to be an assistant director of a junior high camp with a Salvation Army church right by me.  I was blown away that such a job could be right there at my finger tips.  I interviewed and got the job!  I had never been so excited about a job in my life!  That was a great picture of God's grace to me and that when we turn from evil to do good God will bless us.  Amen.  If we seek first God's kingdom and to please him all other things will be added to us.
Everything else will fall into place and our lives will be great, for the most part, and he will provide for us and things can be wonderful. :)

So I had an awesome time working with that camp.  It was only 10 mintues from my mom's house so I drove there every day.  We went on the most amazing trips together.  It was me and 3 other staff in charge of only about 15 kids.  Super easy. :)  And I got to go to Disneyland for free with them, the San Diego Zoo, every water park in Orange County, Knotts Berry Farm, etc.  It was for sure the biggest dream job I had ever and probably will ever have.

God really poured out his grace to me in that.  Even though I had done what I felt was the biggest sin of my life, living in sin for 2 months, God still gave me the most amazing job ever after that.

The other interesting thing in that time is that while I worked at that camp I decided to fast every Wednesday for 24 hours that summer.  I knew my flesh needed to be put back in check and it worked.  I did not date anyone after the guy I fell with for 2 years.  I completely just focused on God and God blessed me.

After that camp I went on to be so blessed to get a job as a junior high English teacher for a private school.  The kids were the best kids I could have asked to teach, most of the time. lol.  It was another amazing job and a wonderful experience.  Another picture of God's amazing grace to me and I am so grateful I got to do that job.

So I hope that story gives you hope, that even if you did fall or are falling, if you repent and turn the other way, God will bless you tremendously for obeying him.  Whatever sin you were in or are in, repent, stop doing it now, and vow to God to live holy and pure and God will bless you.  Amen.  God bless ;)

A Miracle Story

Here’s a little miracle that shows there is a God and might increase your faith. 😁👍🏼The exact same day that I bought myself a new NKJV Bible was when Ben, my hubby, emailed me and asked for my number. That was the only time I had ever bought myself a Bible. My other ones my mom had given me. Ben and I were both on the dating website plenty of fish, which I highly recommend for any of you single people. 👍🏼 He called me right away and I knew right in that phone call that he was The One. He read some poems to me that he wrote about God and I cried out of amazement. I couldn’t believe he genuinely loved God AND he was a great writer! Just like me! lol. So it was like God honored my desire to know Him better by giving me my awesome husband. Pretty amazing huh! 

That was a literal fulfillment of the verve “seek first his kingdom and all these things shall be added unto you.” Amen! 

I’m so glad I met Ben! He is the perfect man for me and I could never want to be with anyone else. Praise God for his great gift to me! 👍🏼😁 

My Life Story

I am a sinner saved by grace.  I have experienced a ton of pain in my life but by God's grace I have not ever been addicted to alcohol or drugs, street nor prescription. My dad and others molested me when I was young and my fiancé of two years tragically died from taking too many prescription drugs 6 years ago. But still I have mostly walked a good path in my life and I have tried to serve God as best as I could.  I still love God with all my heart despite the hardships in my life. I have fallen a few times but I always got back up and made my heart right again with God.  I think most of the time I live a blameless life.  I try to honor God in all that I eat and do and say and where I go and what I do with all my time. Every minute of every day I think of what I could do to serve God best.  I value every minute he has given me to be alive and I try to serve him non stop in making Jesus bracelets or writing things he tells me to write etc.  I love Jesus more than anything in the world and I know I owe him everything and anything I have and do, given what he did for me and us. Amen. Nothing in this world can compare with the relationship I have with Jesus.  No person could ever come close to how high I view Jesus and value Jesus. :)  And to anyone reading this I just want you to know Jesus and God and the Holy Spirit love you MORE than the sum of all the waters in the ocean!  Their love for you is so vast that you cannot fully fathom it.  I know life can be very, very hard at times and that makes us doubt God's love for us, but hard times can benefit us sometimes more then the good times.  Our main goal should be to know God and his power, not to just have a comfortable and happy life.  Amen?  God did not promise a perfectly comfortable life but he did promise to give us life.  Sometimes our pain can lead to a greater and more full life.  Amen. So trust God even if times are hard.  Trust that he will do as he said, that he works all things together for the good of those who love Him.  Amen!  May God bless you  :)

Drinking Soda is a Sin

Now that I have your attention, lol, I hope you read what I wrote. :)  I'm not actually that legalistic.  But I think about my own life, how I didn't have a single cavity till I was 20 and started drinking soda.  I literally didn't drink any soda until I was 20 because my mom forbid it basically. :) And I honored her forbiding it.  Oh wait there were a few times I got fast food with friends and got a soda.  But we all know all the crazy facts of what coke can do, how it can clean a car engine and solidify a grahm cracker after a  few days etc.  But we ignore warning signs like that and drink soda anways.  Perhaps people think if they drink Dr. Pepper or Sprite and not Coke then they are ok, but no, it's all the same.  It's all very, very bad for you. Why could drinking soda be a sin?  Because it causes harm to our body and we are supposed to be good stewards over our bodies. 

I think often times people think they can eat or drink whatever they want and a doctor later can fix them.  Or us Christians might think we can eat or drink whatever we want and God can heal us.  Well often times God doesn't heal us.  He lets us experience the consequences of our decisions.  Jesus said "You will reap what you sow."  Sometimes God has mercy on us and heals us anyways, but sometimes he doesn't.

Jesus said something very interesting to the man at the well.  He said to him, "Go and sin no more or something worse might happen to you."  Hm...So the man had a physical illness and Jesus was linking that physical illness to sin that he had committed.  Do we do that today?  Do we ever make that link?  No, not really.  But what we eat causes us all kinds of physical illnesses; diabetes, cancer etc.  But we all want to live for today and not worry about tomorrow.  But tomorrow will come.  Someday you will get old and you will reap the consequences of the bad eating choices you made or your laziness and not working out etc. 

This sounds silly, but I always used to wish I could die in a car accident or something before I hit 60 so I wouldn't have to experience by body falling apart.  But most likely I won't and I will have to suffer the consequences for my own bad eating choices.  I'm not that bad but sometimes I drink soda and sometimes I'll have candy or cookies or ice cream or chips.  All of which I know is completely terrible for me and my body.  So why do we do it?  Why do we eat junk food?  Because it brings pleasure, it gratifies our flesh and therefore it is a sin.  Mainly it is a sin because junk food hurts our bodies.  Too much sugar, salt or fat will for sure hurt your body and you will see the bad effects eventually. 

Have any of you noticed, the one sin that you never hear a pastor talk about is gluttony.  They love to talk about sexual immorality or homosexuality or things they consider "the major sins."  But why don't they ever talk about gluttony?  Because usually the pastor himself struggles with that sin and he doesn't want to talk about it. :)  But it is a sin and we need to be careful of it. 

The best cure for gluttony really is fasting.  If you can take a 24 hour period where you don't eat anything and just drink juice or water it will help you tremendously.  I did this every Wednesday for a summer and I survived lol.  So you can survive too, not eating for 24 hours, every once in awhile. ;)  I think it did help me grow a lot in self-control and my relationship with God.  It helps you die to yourself, to crucify the cravings of the flesh and walk in the Spirit more.  It is good to tell the body no regarding for a whole day.  It is good for a day to not run to get food every time your stomach screams that it is hungry.  Your stomach can be like an unruly 2 year old.  Sometimes you have to make your stomach submit to your mind rather then you submitting to your stomach.  :)

Just think of how much of our day revolves around food.  I am almost always thinking of what I will eat next.  I have never really eaten 3 meals a day.  I more like graze all day on random things.  I hate the feeling of being really full after a big meal so I have never really eaten meals much.  But then all day I'm thinking about what my next snack will be.  And think of all the options we have now.  In the Bible they had like bread and cheese and that was basically it.  Now we have like 1,000 different choices of what to eat every time we eat.  And the packages are so colorful and fun looking.  So gluttony can easily become a problem for anyone. 

So try fasting. :)  And I promise you will be happy that you did.  It can change your whole life!  For the better. :)  May God bless you all!

A Purpose in Pain

I think God uses pain in our lives to teach us to not be so careless. Pain is the beginning of wisdom. :) I think of times when my kids get hurt and often times it’s because they are not being careful enough and they are being careless. Perhaps it’s the same with us, often we bring pain on ourselves when we are not careful enough, with our bodies, our jobs, other people that we know etc. God can use pain to help us learn to be more careful, or more gentle, toward ourselves and other people. 👍🏼

My Church History :)

I thought it would be fun to list all the churches I’ve been involved in over the years. :) 

0 to 6- The Local Church in Santa Ana, CA

6 to 9- Christian Fellowship (maybe that was the name. I remember the worship was cool :) 

9 to 14- Country Bible Church in the small but very nice town of Blair, NE :) 

14 to 16- Main Place Fellowship in Tustin, CA. The church where I grew the most and had the most friends. :) 

16 to 25- Mariners Church in Irvine, CA and sometimes Rock Harbor in Costa Mesa, CA :) Those are great churches! For any of u still in socal ;) 

25 to 28- Christ Place Church in Lincoln, NE and Christ Community Church in Omaha, NE 

28 to 30- Crossroads Church in Odessa, TX 

30 to 33- Joyce Meyer and Joel Osteen YouTube sermons because I didn’t want my daughters to get sick at church lol 

But now The Ridge Church here in Jarrell :) and I will trust God that we will be ok if my girls get sick :)

Why Do We Suffer?

I heard the best sermon of my life this morning at my church by me called "The Ridge" here in Jarrell.  I can almost see the church from my front yard.  It's funny how close we are to it. :)  I really needed to hear that sermon and the topic was perfect given my recent chest pain and almost heart attack thing I had.  It was about Job and suffering.  The series they are doing is "When life knocks you down" and the picture is of a turtle on it's back, which I thought was super cute.  Here are my sermon notes.  It was great!

"We would like to feel good about everything that God does in our lives but often times we don't.  But Jesus also didn't 'feel good' about life when he was hanging on the cross."  And I would add, but Jesus knew it served a purpose.  Just like our suffering serves a purpose.  It is like 1 Peter 1:6,7 "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer various trials, so that the authenticity of your faith — more precious than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ."  Amen :)  Our suffering turns our faith into pure and valuable gold. :)  

Suffering helps us to transform our minds: "Be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."  Amen :)  When things are easy we usually don't learn as much as when things are hard.  We grow in wisdom much more in the hard times.  

I liked this quote that the pastor said a lot, "You can lead a life of religion right into hell."  Meaning, you can do all the things you think you are supposed to do like read your bible every day and tithe etc. but if you think your good works will save you, you won't be saved.  Only Jesus' death alone can save us.  Amen. :)

"Why is suffering a part of life?" That was the take home discussion question.  My answer would be- to glorify God.  Because when we suffer and still choose to trust God and believe that he is good, God is glorified.  When bad things happen to us, like we are abused as a child or someone we love dies, and we don't turn to drugs or alcohol but rather press into God more and cling to him, the world sees that and God is greatly glorified in that.  Amen?  Amen!  

And this quote was great!  "Satan can give you good things to take you away from God and God can bring suffering into your life to bring you back to him."  

Also, "We can't blame every bad thing and instance of suffering in our lives on Satan.  Sometimes we bring bad things on ourselves from our own bad choices."  Amen. 

"Satan won't take a form that is easy for you to see.  He isn't going to show up in horns and a pitch fork.  He was the most beautiful angel in heaven."  Yep.  "Satan masquerades as an angel of light."

My own side note, and this was a blog title of mine awhile ago, pain leads to holiness.  Often times the people you would think of as the most holy, or they led lives worth copying, are those who have experienced the most pain.  Pain makes our hearts more tender.  We love more, the more pain we go through.  We have empathy for others and want to help others more, the more pain that we go through.  Of course some people focus more on themselves the more pain they go through, but we all choose how we will respond to pain.  Will we let it make us a better person or not?  The choice is ours.  It has the potential to make us much more gentle, humble and loving people if we let it.  

And never forget, "God allows you to go through things but his love is IMMENSE for you."  Amen :)

If you are in the area, come check out The Ridge church!  :)  God bless!

Spread Bibles!

This link below is to a Bible on Amazon that is awesome! It’s only $3 and it’s NIV, which I think is the easiest translation to understand, and large print! Praise God! I think a lot of people don’t read the Bible much because the words are so tiny. But large print is great! I pray some of you will consider using some of your tithe money to buy a bunch of these and leave one in every public bathroom, or every waiting room you go in! Woot! We always talk about China or other countries needing Bibles, but people here in America need bibles too. :) Save America! It’s easy to assume every person in America owns a Bible but maybe they don’t. Buy some Bibles that someone who really needs God might pick up and read! Maybe someone about to commit suicide or do something else crazy. Spread God’s light and leave theses Bibles anywhere and everywhere you go! :) May God bless you all! 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1563207214

Great Awesome Sermon

“The older I get the less judgement I get.” Amen. That’s cause the longer we live the more time we’ve had to make every mistake out there so we can’t point a finger at anyone else anymore. :) Yep. Great sermon here 👍🏼

Remove the Grave Clothes by Joel Osteen 😀

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hdG28w1mwdU

Chest Pain

I was really worried two nights ago that I was about to have a heart attack. I had the classic pain in the chest that was radiating down my arms. I went to the ER yesterday. They did all the needed tests and said I seemed ok. I still had a dull non stop chest pain so my husband prayed for me last night, in tongues, and now my chest pain now seems to be 100% gone, praise God!

And here is something super cool from him. 😁

“I had a vision of you as a little girl and you were trapped in a prison behind bars and the Lord was trying to get in there to help you and I could see the intensity of his love for you in his eyes and how much his heart was hurting to help you. Then I saw a letter from him to you and it was an invitation and it said I love you regardless of what you do and that you are invited always, love Jesus. In the vision I saw charismatic people I know weeping tears of joy with their arms around you and there was the little girl the little you in the arms of Jesus and tears of joy flowing from his face. It was so profound.”

What an awesome vision huh?! Yay Ben! Too bad I never get visions lol. :) But I love hearing about other people’s visions. :) 😁👍🏼😀