A Christmas Sermon (kind of)

Sermon 2, Wait

Here it is Christmas season and every kid can show you a different picture of waiting. They have advent calendars filled with chocolate to make it fun and tasty to wait. When my kids were little we couldn’t put the presents under the tree even because they couldn’t wait to open them and would open and rewrap them. We wait for good news like birthdays, holidays, vacations, and bad news from doctors or events that are at our darkest moments like illness, loss, or death. But what does God say about waiting? “Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31.

The promises of God are all worth the wait. Unlike a set day like Christmas God’s promises must be waited on in faith not by sight. If God spoke a word in your heart and you believe it to be true, it is backed up by scripture and then even if a prophet verifies it again to you, you can be sure that God cannot lie or go against His Word.

Abram waited 20 years and even tried to manipulate God by doing God’s promise his way rather than waiting on the Lord. God promised him a son and he would be the father of many nations, more numerous then the sands of the sea or the stars in heaven. Abram looked at what he saw and doubted God. He was an old man and his wife already went through menopause. He thought he would help God and went to his servant Hagar and had a son. Twenty years he waited, Sarah even laughed at the promise in unbelief. But he did have a son, Isaac. God keeps His promises. The verses before the waiting testify what and how God did this for Abram “He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might he increases strength.” Is. 40:29. God was able to do just that for Abram to accomplish His perfect will. Adam in the Garden when he disobeyed God, God still promised “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.” Gen. 3:15. Thousands of years later, Jesus.

God is outside of time. In Psalms 90:4 “For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night.” Peter reiterates “Beloved do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.” 2Peter3:8. He is giving us encouragement to wait and goes onto say vs 9 “ The Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some count slackness but is longsuffering toward us not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” God is gracious and kind full of compassion and knows He cannot strive with man forever. He knows our frame he created us from the dust of the earth. “But now O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay and You are the potter; and all we are the work of Your hand “Is 64:8. “ Woe to him who strives with his Maker! … Shall the clay say to him who forms it, What are you making? Or shall your handiwork say He has no hands?” Is. 45:9. He knows the waiting is hard and encouraged Israel with prophets to turn back to God, to wait. He encouraged His disciples with the guarantee of the Holy Spirit. He encourages us with His word; He cannot go against His word and the Holy Spirit. He knows what we need even before we know we need it. He gives us the desires of our hearts because He is the one who put the desire there to be fulfilled.

The Good News of the Gospel is that we know the Potter. We know how and why we were created. We know the truth and the truth has set us free from sin. Free from missing the mark of God because Jesus is that Mark. Since we have received the free gift of salvation we now have the Mark living on the inside of us. We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” Rom. 5:21. Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; old things have passed away behold all things have become new.” 2Cor 5:17.

We have the truth living on the inside of us and if we need to wait on the Lord we can wait in confidence and peace. Just like Paul in jail or Peter and Silas singing in prison, we can have joy because we know Him. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the knowledge of the Holy one; My people perish for lack of knowledge. This is the knowledge the wisdom, the fear that Christ died for us while we were still dead in sin, Christ died for us. Christ in you the hope of glory. If we hope for what we can’t see we wait patiently for it. All the promises of God are yes and amen. This is the confidence we have in Him that if we pray for anything in his name according to his word he hears us. If we put all our faith hope and trust in Him then everyday is Christmas. Everyday all things we go through we can have confidence that he is working all things together for good. “When it is impossible for God to lie” said the apostle. He cannot go against His word. He even prays for us where we don’t know how with groanings that cannot be uttered. He has provided for us all things freely to enjoy. We cannot be discouraged by the things we see. He is greater than this world and wants to do exceedingly above what we think hope or imagine.

I have been born again for 16 years. When God delivered me from alcohol I asked Him to heal my arm from tendinitis. I hadn’t played the guitar for 8 years because I was in so much pain I couldn’t put my arm over it. In 3 months God healed it and I have been playing ever since more than in my whole life and the pain never returned. I asked God to heal my son; he has 4x 1y chromosomes that bring on developmental delay and all kinds of odd physical problems. I brought Him to the altar, we prayed and I knew He was healed. God has confirmed in my spirit that he is healed, even sent prophets through the years who don’t even know that I have a son to confirm he is healed. Is he healed? Not yet but I take God at His word. He loves the Lord and sings worship songs and prays, and every time I see him I let him know that God has healed him. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. If we hope for what we see it is no longer hope. Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen. So it has been 16 years and if it need be another 16 years bless God. His timing is perfect He is not in error. I hang onto this scripture in particular because I used to get discouraged thinking maybe he will only be healed in heaven but God’s Word says “ I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” Psalm 27:13-14

God’s promises are ours today in His timing. I was raised catholic and went to 12 years catholic school, baptized all my kids catholic yet walked away in my late twenties and was never going back because they didn’t give me the answers I was looking for. God knew my heart and wouldn’t let me go. He sent someone to my house, a charismatic, born again Christian, to tell me the answers I needed, to let me know how much He loved me. I was 33; God has perfect timing for us all. He will heal Jeffrey, bring my prodigals home, and supply my every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. He can be trusted. We can wait.

Just like the 10 virgins I have my oil of faith, and hope full and I wait for the bridegroom to come. And He will, when all things are fulfilled the Bibles says. He knows when that is, so I can rest in His love, joy and peace that He is for me and not against me. Be thankful in all things and wait. The Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11 are all who waited on God not seeing the full promise but only in part. Noah waited 100 years for a flood enduring mockery and ridicule, but knew God. Paul through all his shipwrecks, infirmities, beatings endured because he Knew God. We endure with patience. 2Peter 1:5-7 “…giving all diligence add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control patience, to patience godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.” So all these promises we have from God that God placed in our hearts, whether it be healings, salvation, ministries, finances, God is faithful. We are faithless, we are liars, we are sinners but there is no shadow of turning with God. He doesn’t promise and then say just kidding or I forgot about you.

We wait we endure, we press forward to the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. We know the one that called us is faithful and true and will finish the work he began in us. We run the race we don’t grow weary while doing well knowing that in due time we will have our reward. Jesus died on the cross and took all our doubt, all our unbelief, our fear our suffering and pain so we can be free. So we will find rest for our souls. So we can have life and peace and life more abundantly, to the fullest. The kingdom of God is righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. There is no doubt or hopelessness or unbelief in heaven, let there not be these things here in our hearts either. We can wait. The fruit of the Spirit is longsuffering, patience. He gives us the ability to wait to hope to believe. Faith as a mustard seed can say to this mountain be removed and cast into the sea. We can cast the mountain of unbelief doubt and fear into the sea with our mustard seed of faith hope and love in God.

Why do we have to wait? Because there are 6 billion people here and now and even more things to come and He sees and knows things which we cannot. He is infinite we are finite. He is outside of time we are inside it. Just like a child on Christmas why do they wait? Because it was ordained for them to wait for that day and time. God ordained that we should have to wait for what we pray for and in the waiting we grow spiritually, mature and learn to trust in Him. We get to know Him better in the waiting, in the hard times of faith. He is testing us but in a way we can test Him as well. Malachi 3:10 “ Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.”” We can bring all our faith to Him. He can be trusted and tested. He will accomplish that which he set out to do. God will have his way and if we pray according to His word, His will, we will have our way also because it will be His way.

What if in the waiting we learn, we trust, we grow, we humble ourselves, we seek His face, we obey, we walk with Him, we lean on Him, we give Him more and more of ourselves and die daily to ourselves.

I will see all the promises of God in the land of the living I will not lose heart, I will mount up with wings as an eagle, I will run and not grow weary, I will walk and not faint, I will wait.

My First Sermon

I have been attending Trinity School of Chaplaincy and one of the assignments is to write three sermons. Here is my first one on fear and trust. Enjoy.

Proverbs 30:25 The fear of man brings a snare. But who ever trusts in the Lord shall be safe.

Fear and trust. How do we see these two concepts played out in our lives? Webster’s states that fear is emotion experienced in the presence of threat or danger, or a state of dread or awe. Let’s look at some examples of the first definition. There are several examples of man’s fear and God’s sovereignty. In Genesis chapter 12, God tells Abraham to leave his country Haran where he lived with his wife and extended family and go to a land God would show him. God even gave him a blessing that he would be the father of many nations and all who would bless him would be blessed and all who cursed him would be cursed. He was in Canaan when there was a famine so he decided to go to Egypt. There he was afraid of man. He was fearful they would kill him to get to his wife for she was very beautiful. Here the trust he had in God to go in the first place was gone and replaced by fear. God is sovereign still and worked on pharaoh through various plagues to not take Sarah as his wife even though Abraham had told him she was his sister. God was still in the situation, took care of the situation and ultimately accomplished the original purpose for the trip by putting Abraham back on track despite his fear despite the snare.

In Genesis chapter 20, Abraham was once again in fear and out of trust in the Lord. He and his family traveled to Gerar where he had the same fear that they would kill him for his wife, so told King Abimelech that she was his sister. Not trusting God and His sovereignty, protection, faithfulness, taking Him at His word, Abraham lied. In fear and out of trust, still God is gracious and kind, full of compassion, not willing that any man should perish but all come to repentance-to change their mind about God. God was putting Abraham through just that so the bigger issue later of sacrificing Isaac came more readily because Abraham understood the character and nature of God. God loves us so much that even after this second time God worked through the King by his wife and servants being barren, but after dealing with Abraham God blessed the King and they all bore children.

God’s will, will be done despite of and even in the midst of our fear, unbelief, and chaos, God is sovereign praise God. Even when we are faithless, God is faithful ever still. “A righteous man falls seven times but gets up again” states Proverbs 24:16. Then goes on to say “but the wicked shall fall by calamity.” We fall but God is still loving us, leading us, getting us back on track, whereas the wicked have no hope. This is why the Psalms rejoice by proclaiming: “Whenever I am afraid I will trust in You. In God(I will praise His word), In God I have put my trust: I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?” Psm.56:3-4, and Psm 27:1 “The Lord is my light and my salvation: Whom shall I fear? The lord is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?”

Peter had fallen and was afraid of man in the courtyard as they were beating Jesus, he was watching and a woman spotted him and accused him of being with Jesus. Peter was so afraid of the crowd coming after him for the same punishment that Jesus was enduring that he denied knowing Jesus to all. Fear is not having faith in God. Not trusting in the one true and living God that can rescue you, restore you, comfort you. Peter knew Jesus as well as anyone could, he even boasted not much earlier of never denying and even dying with Jesus. Fear is a powerful thing. Paul cried out “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Rom.7:24. He knew the only answer is Jesus. The only way to live is through the finished work of the cross. The only way to faith is Calvary.

All these are examples of fear of man. But what should we really fear? Webster’s second definition of fear is a state of dread or awe. Awe is mingled reverence, dread and wonder. We should only fear God. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Prov. 9:10. Over and over again in the old testament the fear of God was the rule. To walk by faith and not by sight is fearing God, trusting God expecting Him to be sovereign and taking care of every and all things in our life. Cast your care on Him because he cares for you. God told Abraham not to fear, Moses not to fear, the prophets not to fear. Even the angels told every man they encountered not to fear or be afraid of them, but to only fear and worship God. God wants all our attention, devotion and eyes on him and off of man and our circumstances. Just as the serpent was lifted up in the desert for Moses and the Israelites to be healed if they were to look at it and it only, so is Jesus. “ If I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all peoples to Myself” said Jesus( John12:32). If we get our eyes off of man and on Jesus then we see what is important what there is to fear, to be in awe of, to look at with reverence, and dread and wonder. A holy, perfect, just God who loves us and wants nothing less than for us to know Him and how much He loves us.

Jesus told us “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell.” Matt.10:28. Deut. 6:1-2 “This is the commandment… that you may fear the Lord your God to obey all His statutes and His commandments which I command you , your son and your grandson all the days of your life and that your days may be prolonged.” Jesus fulfilled this on the cross with His shed blood for us. Matt 5:17 “do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophet. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” The Psalms speaks of us fearing God and putting the fear of God in our enemies. Psm 2:11-12 again fear and trust “ Serve the Lord with fear…blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.” Psm 115:11 “You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord; He is their help and shield.” My personal favorite scripture when I feel in fear and out of trust is Psm 118:6 “The Lord is on my side, I will not fear , what can man do to me?” which is quoted again in Heb 13:6.

Thomas a Kempis in “ The Imitation of Christ” wrote “Do not place much confidence in weak and mortal man…..place all your trust in God. Let Him be your fear and your love. He will answer you. He will do what is best for you. You will find apart from Him that nearly all the trust you place in men is a total loss.” When all the people who followed Jesus left out of fear of what would happen to them, Jesus asked Peter if he was going to leave too and he said “Lord to whom shall we go, You have the words of eternal life.”John 6:68. Where really could we go, Jesus supplies our every need and knows us better than we know ourselves.

But how do we develop this kind of fear in God? 1John 4:18 “ Perfect love casts out all fear.” 2Tim.1:7 “ God did not give us a spirit of fear but of love power and a sound mind.” God is love John tells us and we can even know it to be true in our own lives over and over again. Just as the hymn goes “leaning on the everlasting arms” this is what we must do every minute of every day. Turn our eyes upon Jesus, look full into his face, the face of amazing grace, mercy,love. Meditate on Him, this builds trust, you can only trust someone you know, get to know Jesus the lover of your soul.

Why is this important to me? I was an alcoholic for 18 years since I was 15 with my first drink. I have always been afraid of people and the alcohol and drugs were my crutch to get past the pain I had in my heart. God delivered me completely 16 years ago and put my dependency on Him. Before I could only sing and perform on drugs or alcohol but now have been playing to more people more often than I ever have in all my life thanks to the cross of Christ. To the all sufficient One who knows my every need even before I do. The freedom God has given me is supernatural and more addictive than any substance this world could ever produce. His perfect love did cast out all my fear. Still fear of man keeps me from doing so much more I know I can do so I walk by faith and hope and trust in the living God to still be sovereign in my life and that when I am faithless He is faithful ever still He cannot deny Himself (2Tim 2:13). I pray, read the Word and get to know God to the deepest and best of my ability, as He reveals himself to me piece by piece, as much as I can take as much as He allows. And I learn to trust, to wait, and to hope in Him and Him alone. Proverbs 3:5 : Trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding.” I am learning that when I have fear of a situation or person and that fear is keeping me from doing what I know God has called me to do I must overcome evil with good and fear with trust. Ultimately what can man do to me, it is far better to depart from here and be with the Lord as Paul had said (Phil. 1:23) and I agree. I know there will be many times that God will put me into situations that I may be afraid just as he has in the past but if I know He has called me to do it then I know I can trust Him for the outcome. The battle is not ours but the Lord, therefore be of good courage, greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. Without the trials there is no growth but we never need to fear, He never leaves us or forsakes us He is with us always even to the end of the age, amen.

On The Radio

My record company says I am on the radio in France! It is a start. My desire is that people would hear my music and have a greater relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ. I was playing the San Francisco Bay Area for over five years in coffee houses, bars, malls, rest homes, churches, restaurants anywhere God allowed me to play. It was awesome, tiring, rewarding, exhausting. I played to many and few and felt like at least people were hearing the Word of God in a different format. People who might never have gone to church or heard of Jesus and those that loved the Lord and were excited it was played in public places. It was quite a ride. At times I played alone, for a while I had a drummer and bassist, and in the beginning I played with a lead guitarist. The run of it was for the love of the Lord and rewards in heaven and over the years have given away more than two thousand cds. I have a publisher and record company and now God has me on the radio in France. Hopefully I will have a band again who want to play for the Lord because if we can expand the Kingdom of God first and seek that and His righteousness than all these things will follow. Now I am studying to be a chaplain and my heart's desire is to still play music but also to minister to drug and alcohol dependent people because I was there too and know the power of God to lift us up out of the pit. If anyone is reading this and has a desire to do the same, or if you know someone who wants to serve the Lord through music, or if you want some music for your church, group, Bible study, retreat or whatever email me I love to play and witness of how great our God is.

Pebble Beach

The golf is over but thought I would post the pictures from the time me and my hubby walked to the 18th hole. We set out on a walk down to the beach from downtown Carmel, not a very long walk, so decided to go down some side street on the way back. There was a sign and an entrance for 17 mile drive. Took that street to see how far we could get and went all the way to the 18th hole. Beautiful day, no one was there however it took hours to get there and back but was well worth it. The neighborhood is gorgeous with elaborate sprawling houses overlooking the golf course and ocean.
This posting however is about my progress from a week ago when I decided to get moving. So far so good, am building up stamina and I figure anything I do for that day no matter how much or little is good. Today I played tennis, rode my bike and took the dog for a walk all within about 3 hours. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. He not only can supply my spiritual needs but also my physical and mental needs.
Ipods are a huge blessing for breaking the monotony of walks and bikes with pod casts and music. I love pod casts because they keep me focused on the Lord. Lately been listening to a lot of apologetics such as the Don Johnson show or William Lane Craig, Greg Koukl Stand to Reason. They are interesting and can get complicated but very informative on how people who don't know the Lord think. I like Gayle Erwin, Joseph Prince, Andrew Wommack, People to People phone in broadcast and several others.

Help me get on KLOVE radio

1-800-525-LOVE, 1-800-877-5600

When I made my first cd Love Never Fails I sent it to KLOVE radio in Rocklin CA and they told me they only take cds from record companies. Now God has blessed me with a record company, Elppa records, and he submitted my cd. They accepted it and let him know if enough people request it they will play it. Please call as often as possible and let all your friends know so I can get on the air and reach potential thousands with the Word of God.
To date I have been playing the SF Bay Area for over 5 years and have two cds and on a compilation cd for Haiti relief and have plans for another cd and a Christmas compilation cd. I have sold some cds but have given away around 2000 cds. I would love if the music gets out there and touches, effects, and changes lives for the glory of God.

A Few weeks ago we went to church and saw David Pack from Ambrosia ("You're the biggest part of me") so I gave him my cd and asked for a picture. He came from Saddleback church down south so I gave him another cd for Rick Warren. The next day we went to The Grand Canyon. What an amazing place. There are signs everywhere not to hike the canyon in one day, it is very dangerous and hundreds of people a year need to be rescued from doing so. We started out on a hike to go about two hours down and then it is double the time back up. Along the way we ran into an older couple who said they hiked the canyon last year all at once, so we figured if they could so could we! Three hours down, pretty easy, it is an inverted mountain. Then there it was 9 miles straight up! We had great weather for it. The day before when we first arrived it was the hottest day of the year but this day we were hiking it was cool and overcast. The views are incredible and the hike amazing with all the different rock layers. The Colorado River is all mud due to the runoff from all the rock. We started the climb up and stopped several times and went really slow, but we made it before dark and with out a rescue team. 11 hours total, the marathon of all hikes and well worth it, hoping to do rim to rim next year staying overnight in the canyon.
Saturday we went to the asian festival in San Francisco which was cool, dragon dancers, martial arts display and a variety of asian musicians. But being the publicity hound that I am, I saw a camera crew and asked what they were doing. They were filming promo spots for the CW and asked if I would like to do one. Of coarse. It will be posted Wednesday on The CW Bay Area website. The only show I like on that is Two and a Half Men, so they had me say "Two and a Half Men my guilty pleasure" and will air before that show. That was a lot of fun, I got a chance to sing on tv and gave them all cds.

Can Do

So writing everyday is much harder in practice than in theory. Friday I went to the SF zoo with my daughter and it poured rain all day. It was the coolest thing. We felt like we were trespassing. We had the zoo to ourselves. We saw the lions being fed and the giraffes in the barn eating, the baby monkey and the two wallabies out in the rain while the rest were in their barn. By the time I got home I had been up for 24 hours because I had worked that night. Saturday I was out with my husband all day at the Transformed conference in San Jose. I saw Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort and of coarse gave them cds. So many celebs now have my cd: Michael Franzeese; David Pak from Ambrosia; the author of The Prayer of Jabez; morning newscasters on NBC Laura Garcia-Cannon and her husband Brent Cannon; Jim Caveizel of Passion of the Christ; MC Hammer who I met at a funeral of all places. This posting however is about doing all things through Christ who strengthens me. I was up for 24 hours and that wasn't the first time. Many times working night crew I have stayed up during the day to get things done or just have a life sometimes even up to 36 hours. God does supply all my needs. If I need energy He supplies it. He has given me all I need and the power of His Holy Spirit to encourage and uplift me so when I am weak then I am strong. Many times I have been in situations where I don't want to be there but call on the name of the Lord and He does save me. He gives me peace in the storm and reassurance of His love in the turmoil and conflict. What an awesome God to supply us with ALL His riches and glory through Christ. We ARE seated in the Heavenly places.

Another week come and gone. I posted a new picture on my site margiewongmusic.com
My daughter took this four years ago now. We were at my parents house visiting and I was teaching her how to play guitar. My mom had dementia really bad for a couple of years from several mini strokes and while she always knew who I was she wasn't always there. She had her eyes closed most of the time because she had double vision and her conversations were very bazaar to say the least. At this time it was early in the evening and me and Lindsay were on the floor playing guitar and I was showing her several easy chords and said see you can write about anything. I turned around and my mom was awake and smiling and very alert! I said you can write about Grandma. Then I started lightheartedly saying anything but the more I looked at my mom the more the emotions of her failing health and what an awesome mother she had been to me flooded me and I poured out my heart in the song "For Grandma".
My brother, sister and me are all adopted and my parents adopted late in life. She really was the first to love me and we never felt any less loved than anyone else, maybe even more loved than others. She was so kind hearted telling me growing up that they chose me over all the other babies in the nursery. It was only as an adult did she tell me the truth of my adoption. My mom had a tumor and back then the remedy was a hysterectomy. So in her late thirties she and my dad wanted children. The agencies said they were unsuitable because they were older. So they went to a private agency in San Francisco and they gave them my brother who at the time was deemed hard to place because he had a lot of colds and was over 2. That worked well and two years later the agency called them and told them they had another baby to place and if they wanted to adopt again. They said yes and that is my sister. Two years later they called again with another little girl to place at two months old and they said yes and that is me. Two years later they called and said they had a boy, but I guess I broke the mold because my dad said no, but they let the agency know of the family across the street from us wanting a baby. So the boy I played with growing up could have been my brother, how weird.

Having older parents, 41 years older, is different, everyone thinks they are your grandparents, so when I had my first child at 23 I started calling them grandma and grandpa and never went back. They were married 57 years by the time she passed three and a half years ago, six months after I wrote the song and took these pictures. My dad passed a year and a half ago in September, so now I am an orphan again as it were. They were devout Catholics and loved God. When I was born again they didn't understand it but were open to me telling them about Jesus and even went to my church once or twice over the years. God really does supply all our needs. My birth mother was also a Catholic and did not believe in abortion. She was from Missouri and was going to college at the time. Not wanting to shame the family she told no one she was pregnant and came out to San Francisco to St. Elizabeth's Hospital for several months to have me. Once I was placed she went back and got a degree in special education from Columbia college. I never knew her, she died ten years before I found her, in her forties, but I met her older brother once and his family and they gave me pictures and said I sound just like her. God has preserved my life and set me in such a great family with two parents who loved each other, a brother a sister and with a solid foundation in Him. God supplied all my need, He really does form us in our mother's womb and is with us always. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, He knows the beginning from the end and loves us all the way.

So I wrote the song from a grateful and broken heart dedicated to my mom, the sweetest, kindest gentlest woman I was ever privileged to know. I miss my mom and dad but am confident in God's goodness that I really will see them again one day.

Encouragement, encouragement, encouragement

We are to encourage one another daily in the love of Christ. Do not be hearers of the word but doers also. So often I think wouldn't it be lovely to truly be like Christ owning nothing in this world, and owing nothing but to love one another. To live unencumbered by life's struggles. Mortgages, bills, debt, jobs, to be truly free and carry only the shoes on your feet and the clothes on your back. Is this truly possible today in the "modern" world we live in? If Jesus is the same today, yesterday and forever wouldn't he still only survive with the clothes on His back? Foxes have holes and birds have nests but the Son of God has nowhere to lay His head. Was Christ as dependent on us as we are on Him?
Provoking questions for turbulent times, but consider with the collapse of the economy and so many living around the globe in abject poverty, can we being true believers and followers of Christ live like Him? We have the mind of Christ and all the riches in Glory through Christ Jesus, sincerely a reality of the Gospel and the Cross, but do we really live like it? To loose the whole world and gain your soul is really the quest. To live in total faith in the Son of God having provided all on the Cross making a public spectacle of powers and principalities. Do we really live as free men not needing anything of this world or as slaves asking for only the world?
Of coarse I am preaching to myself first and foremost, pondering my own state and soul. Do I really walk by faith, pray by faith, see the world through the eyes of faith, or is it all sight. How can I stop vacillating between the two. How do I stay on fire and not lukewarm. Thanks be to God through His Son Jesus Christ. Christ is the only answer is the only way to faith. Jesus truly paid the price I never could, truly bore my grief, sins, pain and suffering, the only thing worth gaining in this world is a relationship with Him the author and finisher of my faith. All to Jesus I surrender all to Him I freely give.
I will ever love and trust Him in His presence truly live.
Saints of God I hope this encourages you to live every day for Him, about Him, to Him, through Him. To know Him is all there is. We surely have brought nothing into this world and cannot take anything out, so let us be content with what we have and love one another from a sincere heart. Jesus Christ Yesterday Today and Forever, Amen