Relationship or Religious

Substitute the word religious with the word relationship. Are you religious or do you have a relationship to God?

God is my father. He loves me unconditionally. He loves me more than I love Him. He takes care of me. He listens to my concerns.  My father gives me gifts, good gifts! (blessings)  He always answers my prayers.     Because he knows my future, sometimes God fulfills my requests differently (better) than the way that I ask.  He has a good plan for me.  I trust Him in all circumstances.

I feel God's smiles.  He makes me joyful. He carries my burdens which gives me peace in stressful situations. He is with me always. He gives me guidance with convictions.  I feel his warm presence. I love Him. I desire to make Him happy because He loves me so much. I want my children and friends to experience this same love relationship with God.

The Bible says that non believers see this as foolishness. It is true. Unless you also have a relationship with God, you will not understand it. Acknowledge that God is God and that you need him and you also can have this same joyful, loving relationship. Only then you will understand my joy. 

I feel praise welling up inside me as I write this. Oh, oh..... here comes a song......   :D

Please Read This

All the big name Pastors, David Jeremiah, Greg Laurie, Beth Moore, etc, and now even our local Kindred pastors have all been recent preaching on end time events.  Is it coincident that three of the kindred Bible study groups were studying Revelation last year? Is God trying to tell us something?  A final warning or giving us a heads up?

I can't get  yesterday's sermon out of my head.  I've learned that when Israel regained it's national status in 1948 it put the end time events in motion. What's scary is that all the puzzle pieces have now fallen into place.  Not a few but ALL! Today there is a coalition that is forming around Israel that will result in a peace contract. Why this is sooo big is that the contact will be signed AFTER the rapture! That means the rapture will happen soon!  Very soon! Wow!

How do you feel about this? I don't know about you, but I feel an urgency. There a few of my family members and a few close friend of mine that are not saved yet. It's a now or never situation. They have to decide now. The Bible says that after the Rapture, those that have rejected Jesus will have hearts that will be hardened and will not accept him later.

Have you asked God into your heart? Acknowledging that God is God is not enough.  The Bible says even the demons acknowledge that God is God and they shudder. You have to do 3 things.  Acknowledge that you have sinned.  (We all have.) Ask for forgiveness. And most importantly allow Jesus to come into your heart and be YOUR savior.... by acknowledging that He died so that YOUR sins can be forgiven.  Thank him for his sacrifice.  Nothing unclean can enter heaven. By His death, Jesus who was sinless took on your sins so that you (if you ask for forgiveness) are clean. You will spend all eternity with your family and friends and Jesus in a joyful, wonderful place called Heaven.

You can't say that you don't believe in this stuff and escape it.  Sorry it doesn't work that way.  It's like back in Noah's time.  People said "I don't believe there's going to be a flood."  Guess what.... if God says it's going to happen it will.... no matter what your opinion is.  Did you know that there is twice as much prophecy in the Bible predicting end time events as there was predicting Jesus' birth? All predictions have come to pass.  That is why, without a doubt, the Rapture is about to happen. God says so!

Please, before it's too late.  Ask Jesus to become YOUR savior, now!

Bible Study Book of Revelation

This link/site looks very interesting. I'm saving this link here, so I can get back to it. I've studied Revelation twice. There is so much to remember. I'm ready to study it again.

Bible Study Book of Revelation: AAG BSP #004 Revelation 1:1

An Answered Prayer

There was a baby robin right on the other side of our window. He was calling for his mom. He cried for at least an hour. Sierra and I felt so sorry for him. Then we prayed and asked God to help him. A moment later we saw his mom show up and the two of them hopped off together. God had answered our prayer. It was exciting to see!

Life Lessons

--> -->Many times I think of things that I would like to be said at my funeral…. But of course those words never get on paper. Well, now I’m going to try. I’m sure I will just ramble on, so forgive me if you happen to read this before I clean it up. Here go my random thoughts:
I would like my funeral to be a “send-off”. Be happy for me. I am so excited to die. That sounds weird. I guess I should say that I can hardly wait to take that trip to Heaven. Let me tell you why.
God has given me so many neat gifts. Yes, most of them are the special little day-to-day blessings, which I recognize and thrive on. But God has given me some really big things also. Let me tell you about part of a vision/dream that I had. I am not going to tell you the whole dream here but just part of it.
BTW, when I have a dream that I not only remember when I first awake but weeks and years later and I can still recall every detail as though I had just woken up, I call that a vision… a visual piece of knowledge from God.
During this vision I saw a parade children, soldiers, sick people being raised from the dead heading for Heaven. They were very much alive and they were focused on their destination. I was so excited for them. I felt their joy. The joy that I was experiencing was nothing compared to the joy that we feel here on earth. The joy was so strong and wonderful that it welled up inside me like a balloon. The joy was so big that my soul inside of my body was joyfully singing (an involuntary act). This joy actually lifted me off the ground and I could have easily, if I chose to, joined this parade.
I can’t wait to take that trip Heaven! I got a taste of that thrill, that happiness, that indescribable joy. I look forward to experiencing it again!
The reason that I am so looking forward to seeing God, experiencing the joy and completeness of being with Him is because I’ve had a relationship with God during my life walk. He is my father and also my friend. He is in control of everything. It’s not just words. It’s truth. Here are some of the lessons that I’ve learned:
Lesson 1: God will take care of my needs.
Trust God. It sounds so simple but it is a lesson that I had to learn. Let me tell you a story.
When Jen was an infant we were really short on cash. I wasn’t working and Dave was in the process of giving up his job at the Forum and was working at A&W Motors and eventually he started to work dispatch for Cass County Electric. Back to the story….. We were going to have Jen’s dedication ceremony that Sunday. I told Dave that I needed to go to Fargo and pick up food for our guests and I also needed diapers. Dave asked how I planned to pay for it. I said, Well didn’t you just get paid? And he answered, yes, but I have bills to pay. He added, “well I guess if you have to…. Write a rubber check. I’ll deal with it later.”
Peggy, a friend of mine called. She wanted to know what I was doing. I told her that I was going to Fargo to pick up some things but hated doing it cuz we’re so broke. She called back a little later and asked me to stop by her house when I got to town. I did.
Peggy had gone grocery shopping for me. She had bags of groceries! She told me that her husband had gotten an unexpected bonus check and she just knew that it was meant not for them, but to spend on someone else. After talking to me she looked at the grocery ads in the paper and made a list of items that drew her attention. Then she went and bought them. Peggy gave me the list and told me to check it, so that when I shopped, I would know what she had gotten already. This next part is going to give you goose bumps! Peggy’s list and my grocery list were identical!! This is the honest truth….. no exaggeration! Well actually there were two differences. Some of the quantities were increased on Peggy’s list. Peggy had also thrown in a couple things from her pantry like garbage bags that were on neither of our lists.
Wow! How’s that for seeing God’s fingerprints?!! Now do I worry about making ends meet? Never. God is my provider!
One more thought on this. Sometimes Dave and are have gotten funds from somewhere unexpected, like once someone at church gave us $40. We were embarrassed to take it cuz we didn’t currently need it….. but then an unexpected $40 expense came up Violia! God had provided the funds. I love seeing God’s fingerprints. How can I not trust God to take care of our needs?
I also believe that God did not want us to be prosperous while the kids were growing up. I feel that if we had excess money while they were growing up, the kids would expect to have excess money as adults…. Like it was “due them”. Now instead, they appreciate their income and treat it differently. God was molding our children yet supplying our needs.
Jokingly, I am glad that we couldn’t afford the luxuries of snowmobiles or fast boats because Jason would have killed himself on one of them. Ha ha.
Okay, now you may wonder if I trust God in other things now that Dave and I are stable financially. The answer is yes, and I’m still learning.

Lesson 2: God will take care of our Children

This was been my daily prayer:
Dear God, for my family, I ask for:

• Provisions
  
• Peace
  
• Protection from Satan
  

And most important,

• Please fill them with faith for you.
  

Then I realized that He has given me all these things and more and yet I keep asking. So now, instead of always asking for things, I open my eyes and see that he is giving me the desires of my heart. I try to thank God more and also trust that He is doing things His way which, in time, I will understand that His way is best.
Dear God thank you for taking care of my family!!
The hardest things to trust God with are the things that we have no control over like the health or safety or faith of our loved ones. Many times I stayed up most of the night waiting to hear from our daughter, Jamie, when she was a teenager. I sat up praying, asking God to have her come home in the next ten minutes or at least get a phone call from her. God didn’t answer my prayers the way I told him to. But the desires of my heart were all answered. If only I trusted God to mold and shape Jamie into a God-loving, safe and healthy person that she has become. After all, that’s what I really wanted.
Yes, we don’t want our kids to get in to trouble, be broke or get sick. But just like these similar problems help strength my trust in God in my life, so do the kids have to experience some of these things to realize their need for God’s hand on their situations.
Learning the “trust” lesson with Jamie, watching Jen grow up was easier even though the issues Jen had were worse than those of Jamie’s. God knows me well. He gave me a vision to help me through. I will tell you about it:
Even though I was in denial when Jen was into drugs, sex and lying…..I think I knew or sensed the reality of the situation. I prayed instead of worrying. (I had learned the trust lesson J.) God gave me a vision. I was in a windowless hallway. There was a limp dying hanging plant. My heart cried for it. I wanted to remove it from it’s location and fix it. God gave me this knowledge. No I didn’t have to remove it from the location. It had sufficient (in this case fluorescent) light. I was to nurture and nutrition. God would make it thrive.
I knew that this plant was Jen. God had given me the message that I was to basically “mother” Jen. (Nurture and nourish – the two N’s that I keep in my mind.) I bought her food and talked to her daily. God was to take care of all the other details, which he did. One neat thing about a vision is that when you revisit it in your mind, different details become apparent or change. For the months that followed, when I visualized the plant, I watched as it grew in health and the neatest part was I watched as the branches strengthen and they rose upward toward God! Wow!

Lesson 3: God will protect us from Satan

Satan knows which buttons that he can push with us. Because of our sinful nature we can not stop sinning without God’s help.

1. I’ve learned that first I have to recognize the sin. (Example: Judging others.)
   
2. Then I have to make a decision to stop sinning. (This is hard because it is fun to judge others… it makes me feel bigger/better than they are)
   
3. I am not strong enough to make this change without God’s help. Like I said Satan knows which buttons to push. Once I realized my sin, it seems I’m tempted more than ever….. which is probably true.
   
4. After handing it over to God, he will flag each situation for me so that I will have to make a choice to sin or not….. God will strengthen me. (and also make me feel real guilty each time I judge…. The fun is removed)
   
5. Result: Satan backs off on this sin and it’s not a temptation any longer….But (Warning) it is an ongoing demonic battle. Satan will now focus on tempting me with another sin….
   

Satan usually doesn’t tempt me with the obvious big sins like stealing, murder or adultery. Those are too obvious. It’s the not so obvious sins like lying, over indulgence in spending money, gluttony, gossiping, etc. It’s a battle. I’m glad God is on my side!
I am going to end this article with some advice.

• Wake up every morning with anticipation on what God has planned for your day.
  
• Read a little bit out of the Bible every morning so that if God has a message for your day, you don’t miss it.
  
• Listen to Christian radio. It keeps your mind in the right place.
  

Prayer for My Friends

Lord, I pray that you "open their minds so that they can understand the Scriptures" (Luke 24: 45), so that they may accept you as their personal Lord and Savior and develop a relationship with you. Many of my friends don't know what they are missing. Amen

Prayer for Myself and My Family

Please God,
Prosper my family Spiritually. I also ask for:

• Provisions (food and to be able to pay our bills)
• Protection (from harm and Satan)
• Peace (The kind of peace that only comes from you)

I ask for this in the power of Jesus' name,
Thank-you God for your love and your good gifts. I love you,
Amen

Visions

God has given me four visions in my life, each for a very special purpose. The reason that I call them visions instead of dreams is that they are as clear to me today as though I had just woken up and was reflecting on what I had just dreamt. Dreams are fuzzy and unclear and take place in odd places. The visions are very clear, the locations very clear and they all had very clear messages. I received the first vision in the mid ‘70's, the second (and most important vision) in the mid '80's, the third vision in the mid ‘90's and the fourth in the mid 2000’s.

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The First Vision:

This vision is very simple in which God just gave me a bit of knowledge. Dave and I were sitting under a tree and the "light" appeared. We stood up and the knowledge that "the light" gave me was "You will be together ALWAYS." (Exact words) An unexplainable peace came over me with this knowledge.

On Thursday nights Dave and I had archery league in Davenport, ND. (30 miles away) After league I would drive home with the other wives and the men would stay and late drink. Often Dave would not come home until 3 or 4 in the morning. I would worry and think the worst…….car accident, etc. After receiving this message in the vision, the message (and peace) would come back to me and I would know that he was not dead in the ditch someplace because "we would be together always." This message got me through many times. It was very comforting.

Now what is different about this vision compared to the other visions is that even though I can reflect on the vision, and it's always very clear………there is something in the scene that changes. Later when remembering the dream I discovered some pods to my left. I couldn't really make out what they were. Then Jason came along. I knew that the closest pod was our new son. I was able to recall the vision any time that I was worried about Jason and the same comforting message (and unexplainable peace) came to me each time: "You will be together ALWAYS".

Knowing that this "pod" in the vision was our son, I would try to count the number of other pods…….I was wondering how may children we would have. (You have to remember here, while you snicker to yourself that this vision gave me the gift of knowledge…it was not just a mind game as I'm sure that you're thinking at this point) Anyway, it was not for me to know. With the birth of Jamie and Jenny, the pods became little people, not pods. One odd thing is that one of the children/pod is a little farther away from us. Dave is to my right, one of the children is very close, almost under my left arm, one is an arm's distance to the left and the third child/pod is farther away. (I feel comfortable in interrupting it as Jamie and Jenny living close by us and Jason us living elsewhere…..but our love is close)

Something interesting happened after the kids grew up. The message has changed slightly. Now when I replay the vision I hear the message: "I will be with you ALWAYS." Now the vision has changed the focus for me. Now I have the assurance that Jesus will be with me always. That's the message that gives me the peace I desire in all situations.

"And surely I will be with you always….."

Mathew 28:20

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My Second Vision

First let me make a comment. Dave and his sister, Lorie, in this vision, I believe, are representative of non-believers. In actuality, I do hope that they have made the decision to accept God as their own personal savior.

My husband Dave, Lorie and I were at our lake cottage, standing by my mom’s peonies bushes talking when we saw in the distances which seemed to be a thick flock of large white birds coming. They were getting closer and higher. The closer the flock came you could see that it wasn’t birds but people who were covered with bandages. And the bandages were falling off. (These loose bandages gave the look of wings flapping….thus the incorrect thinking that it was a flock of birds)

As this “flock” of people got closer I realized that besides losing their wounds, they were becoming as children. I knew that they were being raised from the dead. I was so joyful and I remember saying, “Yes! Yes!” …kind of congratulating the kids. Usually when you congratulate a child they smile back and smile a proud smile, but not these children. They were focused on their designation. I (or my praise) meant nothing to them.

God was at work here. I was so joyful…. experiencing a joy that I have never humanly felt before. The joy was so strong. It was my soul inside of me praising God…not something that I was making a choice of doing….but had it been voluntarily I would have chosen to. I was so happy for those kids….

This joy was so full…. like a bubble inside of me. It actually lifted me in the air. I found I was being lifted up with these kids until I realized it and smiled and voluntarily went back down.

The kids were getting higher and higher the closer they came to us. They were gone by the time they were over the hill of trees behind us. Wow! I was so excited! Speaking to Dave and Lorie I was talking faster than ever. “Did you see that?!! Wow!! Neat!! Did you see that?!!”

Dave’s reaction was different than mine. He looked unsure, reflecting, he said that he thought he saw something like this before once when he was duck hunting. He was non-committal.

Lorie on the other hand was bold and denied seeing anything. I didn’t see it! Shaking her head, arms crossed, repeating I DIDN’T see it. (Almost scared.) Obviously she had or she would have asked what we saw…. but instead she was saying, “We are Not going to talk about this!” Total denial.

Here are some Bible verses that pertain to this vision:

“And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18: 3 (explains why the people’s bodies were being changed.)

“And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.” Romans 8:11 (notice that we keep our same body)

“who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like is glorious body.” Philippians 3: 21 (not wounded or sick, anymore)

“After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” 1 Thessalonians 4:17 (Now I understand how we will be lifted up during the rapture. It is through the unexplainable joy within us.)

“…..’You will be ever seeing but never perceiving.’ For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn and I would heal them.” Acts 28: 26-27 (I think that this verse describes how Lorie’s character.)

“But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. Your are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins.” John 8:23-24 (No Decision is a Decision. This would be shown by Dave’s character. Although he didn’t reject God, he also had not made a decision for God…..which is the same as rejecting God. Notice, he did not experience the same uplifting joy that I had)

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13

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My Third Vision

This vision gave me strong instructions.

I had dropped off my young children at my mom’s house while I bought groceries. I entered the grocery store and was choosing a cart when everything went dark. Everyone ran to the large windows. I could see a light starting to appear in the rolling clouds. I knew immediately that Jesus was coming back. The thought crossed my mind “Now I understand how we’re all going to see him when he returns.” Instead of being “joyful” I prayed “God, not yet! My children won’t know what’s going on. They’ll be scared!” God answered my prayer saying “I’m giving you this time to prepare the children.” The skies opened up and everything became light and normal again.

“At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.” Mark 13:26-27

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My Fourth Vision

This was a dream that I had in 2006. Jen was in bad shape. She was taking drugs. She lost weight. She was unhealthy. She was living with Kerry who beat her up physically and also mentally. I was lost on how to change things….or would I be able to? I prayed a lot!

I dreamt that there was a withering plant hanging in a dark hallway. I thought, “ I’ve got to move this plant or it won’t survive.” God said, “No she doesn’t have to be moved. Nourish her and nurture her. I will provide the rest. She will thrive.”

I woke up thinking…yes the plant would survive given nourishment and nurturing and light. I realized that God had given me the gift of knowledge that He (the light) would take care of Jen. I was not to worry. All I had to do was nourish and nurture her….in other words be Mom. God’s word, thrive, gives me such comfort!

This vision is different from the other visions in that it is fading. Jen is coming around. She’s off drugs. She has a job and is meeting good people. She is still living with Kerry…but maybe he’s changed, or maybe this is just temporary. God has a reason for Kerry to be there right now. He did get her off drugs. God has his fingerprints all over Jen’s situation. I can see them. This dream is almost complete. Once it is, I won’t need it anymore and I feel that it will be gone…having served the purpose that God gave it to me.

“Don’t be afraid. Just stand where you are and watch, and you will wee the wonderful way the Lord will rescue you today.” Exodus 14:13