06/04/2023 This video is about Derek sharing on people committing themselves unto God, with the understanding that Jesus calls us to war, to battle for him, much like the idea of a soldier going to war. Casualties are expected in a war, so we must consider that when we endeavor to live for Jesus.
Also, we should remember too, that giving your all to Jesus will result in Him giving you life to the full. John 10:10
06/01/2023 I listened to a song last year around Christmas I guess, and Mary and I stumbled upon it. It is a great song, and the harmony is beautiful. There is no end to the variety in God!
Maranatha in Aramaic means “Our Lord, come!” or “Come Lord”.
05/31/2023 I received a message in my email inbox and though it is linked to an entire article I cannot get a full view of: the circled part is definitely a good little write-up on separating oneself’s from sinful situations, that it would be great to meditate over. I have heard teaching on it before, and tried to implement it, and thankfully can see on the other side of the mountain now, how my life has been spared because of it. I still have to abide by this, even now.
God REALLY is Good After All
If we as Christians really believe God is good, and that heaven MUST be good, and that those things that make our soul truly happen “taste” good, then why would a good God withhold one more good thing from you? Jesus came with a new light on the truth of God’s message to men, still bearing the testimony of the laws and the prophets of those come before Him, and yet His issue with the Pharisees often was that they were holding people down, and he wanted to lift them up. (Matthew 23 is a good chapter to read if you want to his righteous contention with them.)
Trust Means Letting God Handle Things
We must TRUST God is good, even if we feel His decision for this or that, may not be what we desire. “This is the message we have heard from him, and declare to you: God is light, in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). We also have to realize that God intends good and that there is no darkness in Him. “It’s easy for you to say that,” you may say, “but you haven’t had to endure what I have had to, or you don’t know about my situation”, and to some degree you are right, but then there are other places that I have not had it as good as you had. Anyone in this world could say that! So, whether we want to face things in faith is a hard decision for us all – in the moment, by the day, or in lifetime decisions. Everyone carries some trials with them, as Jesus said to his disciples then and now, “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33b).
Thankful to Clarence L. Haynes Jr for writing this article and hope to share good thoughts that will truly lift up another saint, not bring them down.
05/24/2023 In the last few days, I have had the opportunity to go to a good church service, at a Pentecostal-type church near where we live in SC. It’s good to be with brothers and sisters in the Lord, whether it’s a new experience, or time-tested and well-weathered encounters. On the way home from church, it hit me, as it had the week before, that the power of the Holy Spirit is mainly for Evangelism. John made a statement that at Pentecost the believers were filled with the spirit, for the sake of preaching the gospel to all creation! Why have I missed this? In my desire for holiness, have I forgot the joy I had at first?
Good Old Days
I was driven constantly to tell a person that Jesus really is what His gospel says He is! I desired to see others around me understand the salvation that I had attained by believing in faith and having a genuine regeneration (born-again) experience! And if I were totally honest, those first 3 years of my new life in Christ were the most evangelistic, most radical, and the most demanding years. Those times had persecutions, tears, joys, wonderful memories and growth; but in my innocent naivety – I assumed God really was good, and I knew He was. So, I filled up on Him constantly. It’s not that I did not think God was good in later years, but I think that as I grew in the Lord, it was all-to-easy to forget the love I had at first (Revelation 2:4-5). I was at times disenchanted with rebellious things in my heart, that were not there when I was born-again, and I gazed upon that thought too much, probably. It was never my intention to become un-evangelistic! The last 10+ years have been much for me about personal development, family life, rearing girls, and have had spurts of joyous times here and there when getting to share light with other believers, and probably a dozen or so encounters with “unsaved” people, to witness to them.
Gotta Get Back to It!
My desire is to return to the filling of the Holy Ghost, in the purpose of getting souls connected to God in Jesus Christ. God help me! Being a woman doesn’t limit me to sharing the gospel, but I believe that being a married woman – that there are proper ways to go about it! Hopefully, writing and stirring myself up will continue to help me develop thoughts that are in keeping with God’s spirit and God’s timing. Upholding my husband in what God has called him would still be the main thrust.
Much-Needed Direction
I’m looking through Acts to see what verses will help me along in this, and I’ve already found good direction. I realize that, in light of evangelism, God simply desires for us to share His wonders in our lives (Acts 2:18-19; Acts 6:1-4). When the Holy Spirit helped people speak in new languages in Acts 2, it was the case such that other nationalities started to hear people talking about God’s wonders, in their own language. Imagine that! Coming to a strange place, a new city, and you knowing maybe one person who could translate for you. Then all of a sudden, there is some other person(s) that you can understand, coming to you full of joy, and wanting to tell you about God, the God! This wasn’t happening for one nationality but for the following: Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia., Phyrgia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene, visitors from Rome. (both Jews and convert to Judaism): Cretans and Arabs. They said “Even though these men are Galileans (among us), how is it that we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our tongues?”…”What does this mean?”
Good Influences
I have friends and have seen it before, where when I talk with them, I’m automatically drawn to think about God, what God has done in their lives, and this is because THAT IS WHAT COMES OUT OF THEIR MOUTHS (Hebrews 13:15) Jesus is teaching these sweet souls some stuff, and they want to help a brother by encouraging them. They want another person to relate to them that Jesus is the Lord, and it brings joy when you can meet a person who approaches you with it, how much more joy if God gives us the energy to initiate such talk?
05/18/2023 Here is an article that I got in my emails,and I figured its good to reflect on sufferings in the body of Christ, that is all the believers in Jesus. I don’t consider myself Catholic, but the Catholic saints such as Teresa de Avila, St. Francis and St. Patrick mean a lot to me (as well as Protestant saints), and I appreciate their Christian faith and Christ-filled contributions to the faith.
Catholic or not! All That Matter is Jesus.
I have other brothers and sisters in the Lord who are catholic, and I try not to let the fact that a person is Catholic cloud my reasoning, but rather approach the person I’m addressing with an open attitude. How easy it is to put someone in a category and assume you know everything about what that individual believes! Anyway, here is an article from a Catholic newspaper, and whatever the sentiment is towards Catholicism, if it were judgment day, I would say in a clean conscience, “Yes, I believe it is possible for a catholic to be born again and to know Jesus” Here is an article on problems in Manipur State in India.
Adventures in Goa, India
When John and me (very pregnant at the time) went to India, we thankfully were able to stay with a couple in Goa, India. The wife and husband had a Christian orphanage and they were busy for the Lord. The wife, Meluna, was from Manipur. She is technically the only person I know from Manipur! Prayers for her extended family, and she had faced persecution there. God help the saints for Jesus all across the world!
I copied and pasted the article the best that I could – National Catholic Register website.
ARTICLE
Christians Targeted in Bloody Ethnic Conflict in India’s Manipur State
An estimated 160 people have died since the violence erupted in the northeastern Indian state on May 3.
Anto Akkara World May 17, 2023
The local Catholic Church has been shocked by the outburst of ethnic conflict in Manipur state in northeast India. The violence has resulted in 60 deaths officially reported and with an unofficial death toll estimated at 160 — the majority of them tribal Christians — and the displacement of nearly 50,000 people along with dozens of churches and other institutions looted and torched.
“This violence is the worst in the history of Manipur,” Archbishop Dominic Lumon of Imphal, told the Register May 10. Imphal is the capital of Manipur.
“We are worried as it is still simmering in peripheries [mountain areas] and communication is curtailed. Tension is widespread and there is a sense of desperation,” added the archbishop.
To curb rumors that are helping to fan the violence, the Manipur state government has blocked all social media in the region.
“The unprecedented violence has taken the State of Manipur like a storm. … Precious lives have been lost, houses burned or destroyed, belongings vandalized and looted, places of worship desecrated and set ablaze. Thousands have been displaced and rendered homeless and are languishing in different shelters in military barracks and relief camps,” the archdiocese of Imphal said in a press statement on May 10.
The violence erupted May 3 following a protest by tribal student organizations against the state’s High Court ordering the extension of statutory Scheduled Tribe (ST) status — which mandates free education and quotas in professional education like medicine and engineering and quota in government jobs — to members of the state’s majority Meiteis, most of whom are Hindus and who account for 53% of Manipur’s nearly 4 million people.
Scheduled Tribe status is a provision enshrined in India’s federal constitution to protect the interests of ethnic communities that historically have been geographically isolated and economically backward. The status is conferred on groups by India’s national government, not by individual state governments.
Local media have reported that the peaceful protest, in the city of Churachandpur located in south Manipur, was disrupted by a truck hitting a tribal motorcycle. The truck’s Meitei driver was beaten up by the protesters.
Following this, a tribal war memorial was torched by the Meiteis in retaliation, triggering the widespread violence between the tribals and Meiteis that soon engulfed the Imphal valley dominated by the Meiteis.
The unofficial death toll of more than 160 “may rise rapidly” according to The Shillong Times, a regional daily newspaper.
More than 40 churches of different denominations have been desecrated and torched across the state as majority of the tribals are Christians.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) in a May 6 statement said, it was “deeply saddened and shocked to note the resurgence of persecution of Christians in the peace-loving state of Manipur.”
Alongside of the CBCI’s remarks, local Catholic cardinals and archbishops and regional Church bodies also issued press statements calling for end to the violence and the protection of the Christians.
At an emergency May 8 hearing convened to address the violence in Manipur, India’s Supreme Court of India issued an order for “protection of displaced persons and religious places of worship.”
“We have made our concern explicit about the need for protection of people and property and the need for restitution and stabilization. This is a humanitarian problem. We are concerned deeply about the loss of life and property,” Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud told the federal and Manipur governments, which are both controlled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), The Hindu newspaper reported.
The court also noted that it was India’s president, and not the Manipur High Court, who has the authority to designate a community as a Scheduled Tribe.
“We have been targeted systematically and colossal damage has been done to our churches and centers,” Father Varghese Velickagam, vicar general of Imphal, told the Register.
The sprawling Pastoral Training Center in Imphal, he said, was raided four times on the night of May 3, by assailants searching for ethnic tribals who demanded verification of the identity of the 50 residents there.
Vehicles on the campus at the time were torched during each raid, and food was looted. The center was gutted as result, as was the St. Paul’s parish church on the campus on the following day.
“The assailants were walking in freely with no police help arriving despite our repeated calls. They carried cooking gas cylinders from the Pastoral Training Center on the second day, put all the pews in the church together setting fire inside the church,” Father Velickagam said.
The damage to Catholic churches and other institutions is estimated at more than 200 million INR ($250,000).
Though no deaths have been reported among Catholics, as there are hardly any Catholics in the worst-hit Churachandpur area, the vicar general noted that several Catholics also have been beaten up for their Christian identity by the freely roaming mobs.
“Such organized attacks cannot just happen unless it was premeditated,” he said. “The targets of attack also smacked of fanatic elements out to disrupt the existence of Christianity under the pretext of preservation of culture.”
Some Jesuits living in the Moirang district of Manipur were stopped while returning after providing house blessings. Their van was torched by their attackers while the priests and scholastics were assaulted, but local residents rushed to give them shelter.
“Those who are causing trouble seem to have been sent from outside with a clear mandate to destroy the churches. Even the people who attacked our guys were from outside,” said Jesuit Father Richard Jarain.
“The (Imphal) airport is crowded like a market. All those who have money are fleeing by air as road travel is not safe with sporadic violence continuing,” a Church worker who flew into Imphal on May 8 told the Register.
“Majority of the dead are tribal Christians,” Rev. Fanai Laldawngliana, former moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Manipur, told the Register from Churachandpur. But he also confirmed that some “Meiteis living in hill areas were also attacked with their houses and other properties torched.”
Reports say state police failed to intervene effectively to protect the minority tribals against assaults from the majority Meiteis. And many observers attributed the problems directly to the actions of the ruling BJP.
“The BJP’s attempt to resolve the problem by backing the Meitei community and projecting them as Hindu will only exacerbate the situation,” an article in the online Scoll news portal asserted on May 10.
Meanwhile, a Hindu nationalist media outlet called the Organizer claimed that the Manipur violence has been carried out “with the support of Churches.”
“This allegation is baseless. The Church does not support or organize violence,” said Archbishop Lumon, dismissing the charge.
For his part, Rev. Laldwangliana expressed “shock” at the Hindu nationalist claim. “They are trying to find lame excuses to divert attention from the real culprits behind the bloodshed.”
“I was getting ready to preach at a church when news of the sudden violence came in,” recounted the senior Presbyterian pastor. “Soon after we left, mobs reached there to attack the Christians and the churches.”
Anto Akkara Register correspondent Anto Akkara writes from Bangalore, India.
05/12/2023 Gollie, I struggle with this every given day. In my heart, I could easily fly and do so many things for the Lord, with more good intentions than I know what to do with. It’s so hard for me to feel like I got something done, because there’s so much more I want to do! I’m not sure to the measure other people struggle with this, but I feel like when God gave me the ability to desire to do good, I got an extra dose. I just wish I could get legs on it, sometimes.
Anyway, this article was very edifying, and I gathered insight about building myself up in the faith, as this writer in Nigeria exhorts Christians to work hard and diligently. I wholeheartedly agree with this, but I just feel like this guy was really balanced! It was edifying to hear such a burst of the word of God, and also to see how he tried to communicate for all ears. God bless this servant!
Enjoy the article here. Also, I will copy and paste it below. Sorry I don’t have the credit for the photo of the gentleman praising God, in the service, at the beginning of the article. His yoke is EASY, and His burden be
Light!
Any teaching that encourages irresponsibility is not of God. There is always what to do (John 2:5). We often think that once we are a Christian, everything is automatic – that’s false. You have to take His very light yoke and LEARN of Him.
Published 3 days ago
on May 10, 2023
By Seun Elere
Christianity is a call to service. The moment you accept Christ as your Lord and savior, you have rights to eternal and goodly living but to access these benefits that salvation carries, you must work. “…continue to WORK out your salvation with fear and trembling” Phil 2:12 NIV. Right is the ground work for access, but your laws can guarantee you right to food and you still die in hunger if access is impeded.
God made Adam and put him in that beautiful garden of Eden with instructions. God never asked the angels to deliver food to Adam morning, day and night, Adam has the responsibility of fetching his own food. He has rights to everything, even the forbidden fruit, but he would have died hungry if he had waited for angels to be delivering food to him. In the same manner, Jesus never offered us a free work in the park, He however asked us to take up His own lighter and easy yoke in place of our heavy burden.
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30).
What is that light and easy burden of Christ? The word of God. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15 KJV. In this kingdom, your depth in the word of God determines your height in life. We have many frustrated christians today because we have many irresponsible christians. Thank God for your life, you attend every Church service, but labour does not equate productivity. You can be laborious and still be very very poor. It is the truth you know that truly sets free John 8:32.
They were two brothers with same right but the younger knew what was due to him and that knowledge granted him access to the father’s wealth (Luke 15:29-31). All these jumping up and down, climbing all manner of mountains looking for who to pray for you is because you have chosen to be an irresponsible Christian. Many christians now pay for people to fast on their behalf, what a shame. Your lack of knowledge is why you are languishing in that situation
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. Hosea 4:6 ESV.
The above scripture started with MY PEOPLE, it means my children (because as Christian we are joint heirs with Christ -Romans 8:17) perish without knowledge. You can be associated with Christ and still perish. Even the just is only sustained by his/her faith (Habakkuk 2:4, Rom 1:17, Gal 3:11, Heb 10:38). When was the last time you opened your Bible to truly read? Placing the Bible under your pillow or above your head rest while sleeping without studying it would only make your nightmares even more scarier. It’s on your phone and many even have voices these days but do you open it the way you open your YouTube, Twitter and TikTok? There you are, ‘believing’ God for all manner of things.
I will highlight three benefits of studying the word of God below:
(a) The word of God grant us access to the Holy Spirit. “The Spirit came into me as he spoke, and he set me on my feet. I listened carefully to his words.” Ezekiel 2:2 NIT. When we study God’s word, the holy ghost penetrates us and gives us light to understand the word. You can’t truly serve God without the holy spirit (John 4:24) and really can’t pray to God without the holy spirit (Romans 8:26). You need the holy spirit at all times to live a comfortable live as a Christian (John 14:16). For a peaceful life, study your Bible to gain access to the light of the holy spirit.
(b) The word of God builds your faith. It is an established fact that no one can please God without faith (Hebrews 11:6). The greatest asset we have as Christians is faith. It is your lack of faith that makes you cheap prey of the enemy because it is always to you according to your faith (Mathew 9:29). Don’t be deceived, no one can believe for you – every man or woman must work out his/her own salvation. “I join my faith with your faith” is a ridiculous lie that many christians believe today. You can only access and build your faith through the word of God (Romans 10:17). The cheapest access to anything from God is faith. Faith is simply knowing what God says about you and acting on it. Emphasis on ‘knowing’ because if you know, you would act. Someone with a billionaire father would most certainly not act as someone with economically-humbled parent. The prodigal son knew and acted.
(c) The word of God sanctifies. Your constant study of the word of God purges you of sins. Salvation is different from sanctification. At new birth, all our sins are forgiven but it doesn’t mean that every other sin afterwards would be cleansed (Mathew 12:44-45). Sanctification is a constant cleansing of ourselves and living a sinless life (Ps 119:11; James 1:22-24). When you rent a new apartment, you hire people to go and do deep cleaning of the place – that is what you get at new birth. Salvation gives you that deep (industrial) cleaning but you will still have to sweep and mop the house daily to clean out dirt, this is what sanctification does. Daily cleansing of oneself through the word of God.
Any teaching that encourages irresponsibility is not of God. There is always what to do (John 2:5). We often think that once we are a Christian, everything is automatic – that’s false. You have to take His very light yoke and LEARN of Him. We were called to do great exploits, to be the salt of the world, as a city set on mountain top that can’t be hidden and as signs and wonders to our world but many have refused to put in the work. “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.” Psalm 119:130 KJV. It means, without the word of God, you will continue to wallow in darkness and suffering. If you can’t put in the work (study the word of God) then, it is aluta continua for you with no victory in sight. Take responsibility, study the word of God to know who you truly are and your heritage in Christ Jesus.
Nwanoye James is the Content Editor and Curator for Opinion Nigeria.
03/12/2023 It seemed his whole country partook in some way in the 2020 crisis and faced some kind of repurcussion, with the attack of the Covid-19 period and the Coronavirus putting a lot of people in the hospitals, and on the alert for sickness in general. George Barna is a fellow who has become renowned as a director, a Cultural Researcher of statistics of trends in society, at the Cultural Research Center at the Arizona Christian University.
George Barna evaluated the four categories of adult generations: elders, baby boomers, Gen X’ers and Millenials, and compared how Biblical sentiment was being compared alongside secular worldviews, and his findings were such that reflected that there has been a digression in people believing in biblical worldviews since the arrival of the COVID pandemic.
He seemed to think that this was due to many churches and parishes, and Christian gatherings having to “shut down” during the pandemic, in which many people in the US were suffering, being somewhat scared of the idea of being in public much at all.
Please read this article, as it is eye-opening that the minority of people believing in God’s principles, persons claiming to be disciples, individual followers of Jesus, Christians, people adhering to the Bible – whichever is the best way to say that, is now even less than it was documented as being even 5 years ago.
Read the article here.
Also, I will copy and paste the article as best I can directly below.
America under threat from syncretism, George Barna says in study; churches urged to respond
By Leonardo Blair, Senior Features Reporter
While the World Health Organization has declared that COVID-19 is no longer a “public health emergency,” America’s embrace of syncretism — the fusion of different religions — and the growing rejection of a biblical worldview remains a threat to general quality of life in a post-pandemic world, especially for children, new research from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University suggests.
“During times of crisis, every generation turns to their worldview to navigate the challenges. Sadly, because syncretism is the prevailing worldview of each generation in America today, the response of Americans to the pandemic and the political turbulence it facilitated have been every bit as muddled and chaotic as the worldview on which they are based,” wrote George Barna, director of research at the Cultural Research Center on the findings from his research.
“The ideological and philosophical confusion that characterizes America is perhaps the biggest reflection of the nation’s rejection of biblical principles and its decision to replace God’s truth with ‘personal truth.’”
Using recent data from the American Worldview Inventory, which is the first-ever national survey conducted in the United States measuring the incidence of both biblical and competing worldviews, Barna shows how the four adult generations in the U.S. — millennials, Gen X (baby busters), baby boomers and elders — had very different spiritual responses to the pandemic.
The research, which involved the tracking of a nationally representative sample of 2,000 adults undertaken in January, showed the lowest incidence of adults with a biblical worldview among the youngest cohorts, millennials, adults born between 1984 and 2002, and Gen X, adults born from 1965 through 1983.
The data show that of the four generations, millennials had the lowest incidence of biblical worldview at 2%. Their connection to Christianity was also shown as quite weak before the pandemic and “was even weaker by the end of the COVID-19” pandemic.
“Millennials were hit hard by the pandemic in dimensions such as their emotions, finances, vocation, relationships, and ideology,” Barna wrote.
Only 5% of Gen X adults held a biblical worldview, according to the data. The study shows that Gen X endured the greatest degree of “spiritual turbulence,” with 10 statistically significant changes and two notable directional changes.
“In all but one instance, those changes showed Gen Xers moving away from biblical perspectives or behaviors. In general, the nature of the spiritual transitions among Gen Xers during the pandemic era was a shift away from trust in God. Among the biggest changes in their religious perspective were declines in believing God created humans, that He is the basis of truth, and that He is the omniscient and omnipotent ruler of the universe,” Barna noted.
“Those doubts have precipitated important transitions in religious behavior, including less frequent Bible reading, church attendance, confession of personal sin, seeking to do God’s will, and worshiping God. Another noteworthy shift is the decline in how many Gen Xers believe that human life is sacred.”
Baby boomers, adults born between 1946 and 1964, and elders, adults 77 and older, were shown to be the most likely among adults to hold a biblical worldview. However, they were still in the minority among their respective cohorts and showed declines over the course of the pandemic.
The biblical worldview incidence among boomers dropped from 9% to 7% over the past three years, while it dropped among elders from 9% to 8%.
Barna suggested that the decision by Christian churches to shutter during the pandemic wasn’t helpful for the American public because it left people unprepared for the challenges of a post-pandemic society.
“The last three years have been a time of high anxiety for tens of millions of adults. It was an ideal time for the Christian Church to provide wise guidance and emotional calm. Unfortunately, most churches agreed to the government’s dictate that they close their doors and remain mostly silent. That left an unprepared populace to follow the primary form of leadership available to them: government perspectives and policies,” Barna argued.
“Obviously, that has not worked well, given how dissatisfied a large majority of the country is with the direction of the nation and the quality of post-COVID life. With only one out of every 50 millennials embracing a biblical worldview, America’s children are especially vulnerable to the inward-looking approach to life that their parents and most other adults practice,” he added.
“As a nation, we may be past the danger of COVID-19, but we are in the thick of the danger brought about by people relying upon syncretism as their dominant worldview. Biblical churches must see this as a time for an urgent response to the direction society is taking. While the Left pursues the Great Reset, it is time for the Church to pursue the Great Renewal — leading people’s hearts, minds, and souls back to God and His life principles.”
Contact: leonardo.blair@christianpost.com Follow Leonardo Blair on Twitter: @leoblair Follow Leonardo Blair on Facebook: LeoBlairChristianPost
05/10/2023 I am thrilled to hear testimony of healings, because our God provides life. The enemy the devil – steals, kills, and destroys. But our Lord Jesus gives, brings life, and puts our lives back in proper order. I want that Jesus that gives life when the whole world testifies against it! Here is an article that I found today of a young girl, looks to be about 16 years old, who was healed of Celiac’s disease. Please read and be encouraged, and praise God for reversing the curse :).
Go to article here.
Article copied and pasted directly below:
written by Christel Berns May 8, 2023
After prayer and word of knowledge, a girl testified how she received miracle healing from her autoimmune disease.
A girl named Emma shared her testimony to Pastor Sean Smith. The pastor then shared the video clip on Instagram, where he interviewed the girl.
Apparently, Emma had been suffering from an autoimmune condition called Coeliac’s disease. According to NHS, it is “a condition where your immune system attacks your own tissues when you eat gluten.” Therefore, a person with this condition should avoid foods that could trigger one’s body. Or else it would damage their small intestine, and their body wouldn’t properly take in nutrients.
Among the prohibited gluten-containing foods are “pasta, cakes, breakfast cereals, bread, sauces, and ready meals.”
For that reason, Emma lived her life battling Coeliac disease. She couldn’t enjoy the foods an ordinary girl would supposed to eat. Until one day, she met Pastor Sean, who prophesied over her. The pastor called out on someone with Coeliac disease through a word of knowledge. He then prayed over Emma’s condition to be healed.
And later, Emma bravely tried to eat bread during Easter, and nothing happened to her stomach. For the first time, she didn’t suffer the major consequences of eating foods that contained gluten.
“..She ate foods that would have triggered her,” Pastor Sean wrote. “And that she couldn’t previously eat without suffering major consequences.. But Jesus… I SO love how Jesus touches His children and frees us!”.
Emma’s testimony reminds us that God loves to perform miracles and wants to heal His children. God is good and always will be because He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes, we are healed.” -Isaiah 53:5 NKJV
Reference | Instagram – Sean Smith
Header Image: Sean Smith [@revseansmith]. Testimony of girl. Instagram, 8 May. 2023, https://www.instagram.com/revseansmith/
05/08/2023 When I first got born again, I learned to be with God, as I was enthralled that the Lord would love me, and consider me his, and also consider me to be his servant. That is what I had desired from when I was young, to be used by God and to do His will. When I had been born again for about 2 years, by then I had an understanding of hearing from the Lord closely, and knew that Jesus would be as close as I would “allow” Him to be. What a great God! I started to learn about “infused contemplation”, as I understand it. And this phrase and this concept is what I would like to reflect on today.
Basically, if I was in distress, or was in a time of focusing on God, maybe with my eyes closed – whatever time I would be in more concentration on God, I started to experience a phenomena that I considered very supernatural. I believe that after much transformation of my mind (Spring 2008), I started to have time where when I reached out in prayer, I could feel a pull back on my spirit, almost like a sensation of God trying to reach me, like my spirit feeling concentrated itself in a feeling of lightness, but yet it felt thick. This is very challenging to write about. What I could try to compare it to in the Bible is this: when James, who wrote a book of James in the bible, had written to the church about the practice of praying, he said “The fervent effectual prayer of a righteous man availeth much”, and I connected that verse with the thought of this “fervent effectual” feeling. The Pull-back feel, the intense or dense-air feeling around the prayer is very hard to explain, and spiritual movements, spiritual activity for a person in prayer can be very subjective, itself. It is for that reason, that Scripture needs to be laced in everything we could think about in regards to prayer. There’s a lot of falsity in the spirit-world, but the narrow path will lead us to Jesus always! The Holy Spirit also, as Jesus said, will teach us all things!
I was learning to pray “harder” because of the duress I was in, and because I knew I had strayed from the Lord, not to the point of some would consider apostasy, but to the point where I felt like my faith was “ship-wrecked” (1 Timothy 1:19). I am not ever desiring to be ashamed of those times, though, because it’s in those times of being crushed, that we realized it’s much better to be broken to pieces that to be crushed. “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit” (Psalms 34:18). It was a hard time for us, but not against us! We learned that God can hold a broken person who is vulnerable and needy better than he can a person who always “has her act together”.
It has been a journey with the Lord to learn about some things I did not have prior teaching for, and many things I had heard of before, I would not have thought would have happened in my lifetime. But, I hope to keep one thing: that enthrallment of knowing Jesus wants me to have life even more than I want to have life! (John 10:10)
In writing this, I am happy to be in a relationship with a great man in the Lord, and to have two girls growing in Him every day. We need His strength to continue on in effectual and fervent prayer.
05/01/2023 I love finding nuggets in Scripture that support other places in Scripture, or verses that highlight a matter that I haven’t learned much about, or Words that just show me something new.
Godliness
I had sweet grandmothers, and one of them used to say “If you have a question, God will answer it in the Bible. He has answered everything” (Ma Ma R). I’m not sure if those were her exact words, but I believe it every bit, and cherish that memory of her telling me. I remember she used to hold her bible daily, and read Christian literature (specifically Max Lucado) whenever she could. I don’t think she was trying to be honorable. She just genuinely loved God’s Words! I found this verse in my “Verse a Day”, as many people surely receive dozens of those. I get at least one from a group called Bible Study Tools. NIV is one among many translations. I like the NASB, though.
“Get that-Outta-Your-Mouth – Blessing First!” 🙂
Anyway, today’s verse was Exodus 23:25 “Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you,”…
I will start to remember this in prayer and pray accordingly for myself and all those that I love.
Can any other God offer us a gift like the feeling we have when worshipping Him, and offer us protection over the things that go in our bodies? The answer is NO. No other God would care for us like that – like Jehovah does. God and Father of our Jesus Christ.
25 Worship the LORD your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you,
Rebekah's Reflections 