Today is my baby sister‘s birthday! She would probably be mad if she knew I was writing this about her, not because I am saying anything that she hasn’t heard before or that I haven’t said directly to her, but because she’s not a big fan of social media and she likes her privacy.

I truly do respect that and admire that about her. However, God has called me to ‘Speak His Truth In Love’ and to Give Him the Glory for all that He has done and does in my life and today is her birthday and I want her to know that she is a true gift from God to me and that she rescued me!

To know Krissy is to know, love and generosity! She gives both freely and without restraint! She gives without considering the cost or what she will receive in return. She has a pure heart that is bigger than an ocean! There is no measurement to its depth, and its width covers the world. To know her is to feel loved and lavished upon! 

On a day like today when it’s your turn to give her a gift, it’s hard! She is the best gift giver I know! But because she gives so purely and generously, she never expects your gift to be like hers. She loves everything she receives!

That is Krissy now! A beautiful, strong, loving, kind, and generous, grown woman! I am so grateful to call her not only my “Sis,” but my friend!

That is not how she came into this world.

She came into this world with forceps! I remember it clearly because as a 10 1/2 year old, I sat anxiously on the edge of my chair in the waiting room! I was so excited that my mom was having another baby! It had been seven years since her last baby was born! 

The nurse walked out and announced,

“It’s a girl!”💗 My heart was filled with instant joy! I couldn’t wait to see her!

I remember holding her for the first time and looking down at her round and beautiful face. Her complexion was perfect, even as a newborn. She had the rosiest cheeks that I had ever seen and two clear red marks on either side of her head, where the forceps had been used. Those marks soon vanished, but I knew that the mark she left on my heart would never go away! 

God rescued me that day through the priceless gift that He gave me in my little sis, Krissy! Our family at home was in turmoil. My parents had been fighting off and on for years now. Although my sisters and I would only hear bits and pieces at times, the fighting had gotten worse, and my dad would leave for days on end. Being the oldest, he would often turn his anger on me. I really loved him! All I truly wanted was for him to stay at home.

Krissy came into my life and rescued me from sadness! She was a gift from God that brought nothing but love and joy! It may not have been the best way of forging a sister bond, she was actually more like my child for a while, but it truly was the antidote to my sad situation! 

Krissy was born with a God-given, sweet and kind disposition! It was there in her as a baby, child, adult, and now shines brightly through her children and grandchildren! 

One of the greatest examples I have of this is when I had my first child, a daughter, who Krissy loved as her own! She was only 16 years old herself, but she lavished her big heart all over my daughter and still does to this day! 

God brings healing and gives gifts that are often the opposite of what we have prayed for or expect. I had been crying out to God as a child for God to heal my parents marriage! My parents at that point had not yielded to God and His healing. So my prayer was not answered in the way I wanted it to be answered. Instead God rescued me! He brought a beautiful little Sis into my life that allowed me to receive love and give love purely! 

God gives good and perfect gifts! There is not one prayer that He does not hear or answer! We just have to be able to see with His eyes and hear with His ears what that answer is!

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above coming down from The Father of Lights.”  James 1:17

When we first recognize that every good and perfect gift is from God, then we should be next drawn to our knees as Daniel was, asking God to open our eyes and ears to see Him and hear Him clearly!

Daniel prayed,

“Oh my God, lean down and listen to me. Open your eyes and see our despair.“ 

Daniel 9:18.

TRUTH BOMB

OFTEN ONE OF GOD’S GOOD AND PERFECT GIFTS IS A PERSON!

As a young girl, when my life was full of turmoil, God heard and answered my prayer. He gave me my sister Krissy and He rescued me!

More than ever, I realize now that she was indeed one of those “Good and perfect gifts from God!“

Our family went through many more ups and downs. That story is for another day!

But today is the day that I recognize and celebrate a true gift from God, my sis, Krissy!

Happy Happy Birthday Sis! May you be blessed and gifted today as you have blessed and gifted so many others!

What is it that you need rescuing from today? Ask God to rescue you and then stop and look around…who has He put in your life to be a good and perfect gift from Him?

Speak Truth Love

There is no one on the face of this earth that has taught me to love people better than my husband!

Oh, I have been shown love, I have given love and forced myself to love at times. I can even be quoted as saying, “I am a people person,” and “I love people!” While I believe that I am and that I do, I am afraid if I am completely honest with myself, I must admit that the majority of the time those people are “My People!”

They are the people I have chosen! They are family, friends, colleagues, and associates that I click with! We have similar interests, similar beliefs, similar backgrounds, and even similar people that we connect with. Truth is, they are the people I like and the people I love! They are “My People” and the people that are easy for me to love!

Not my husband! Not Jim Swaney! He loves all people. I am ashamed to admit that I have even said to him that he is, “The Finder of all the lost puppy dogs!”

As I reflect on our 40 years, this year, of marriage and ministry, I see now that it is most likely the other way around! 

The lost puppy dogs find him! He listens to them. He spends time with them. He counsels them. He helps them and meets their needs. He never gives up on them. He truly loves them with the love of God!

Jim Swaney is a Man among Men and a Pastor among Pastors! He gets down in the muck and the myer with People and gets dirty. He sits with them in their mess and prays with them and councils them with the Word of God and demonstrates God‘s love for them, by being the hands and feet of Jesus to them! 

Jim does not know a stranger! All of God’s people have value and worth to him because they have value and worth to God!

I have seen Jim walk with someone through a civil trial and into jail and through jail and out of jail! I have seen him counsel those who have been unfaithful in marriage, and those who have had their spouse be unfaithful to them! I have seen him love those with athletic ability like himself and love those who have no interest or care about being athletic! I have seen him love the unlovely of Society with the heart of Jesus himself. 

Jim Swaney has demonstrated for me how to take God’s greatest commandment and live it out to its fullest while living the second like it at the same time.

I was recently reminded, by a card sent to me in the mail, just how much others at church see my husband, to quote them, “always finding the time to listen and care for them,” and live out the commandment Jesus gives us in Mark!

“Jesus replied: “Love The Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. All the Law and The Prophets hang on these two commandments. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 

Mark 12:28-31

I do not know about you, but I find the first commandment fairly easy to follow. The second however, is a far greater challenge!

“Love my neighbor as myself!”

I believe God is saying here that my neighbor is anyone and everyone that I am around! If this is true, and I believe it is, then it can get messy!

We are to love them like God loves them!

For lack of time I would shorten it to say;

“Love your neighbor through the good, the bad and the ugly!”

I am sure glad that there are people in this world like Jim Swaney who love all of God’s people unconditionally like God does. He is my example of living out this verse the way God tells me to!

TRUTH BOMB

LOVING GOD’S PEOPLE CAN BE MESSY BUT PRAISE GOD HE IS THE CUSTODIAN! 

God has cleaned up the mess of our lives.

We need to love Him and love others,  trusting He will clean up their mess too!

Speak Truth Love

Stop Signs, Yield Signs, Crossing Signs, Highway Signs, Construction Signs, Grocery Line Signs…and the list goes on!

Directional Signs: we look for them wherever we go! We depend on them to point us in the right direction. We count on them to show us the rules and regulations. We trust them to be accurate and to give us our expectations. We get angry and frustrated when there are not enough signs or the signs are not leading us in the right direction!

Have you ever stepped onto the sidewalk at an airport, luggage in hand, strapped with everything you could over your shoulders and grabbed the handles of everything else and wheeled them in through those two large sliding doors and stood and stared? Not running to get in line or grab your luggage tags, but instead, you just stood there and stared. Look straight ahead, look to the left, look to the right…You could develop an ulcer or a strong sense of anxiety, or even fall into an anxiety attack as you simply took in the barrage of signs! 

Flat screens, larger than any TV in our homes post tons of flights, arriving, and tons of flights departing. Directional signs to TSA tell you which line you are supposed to join. Kiosks stand in front of you giving directions silently to receive your boarding pass, check your bags and receive your luggage tags. X-ray machines hold huge signs over the top stating what you can and cannot put through them or bring on board. 

How many of you like me have left frivolous items and items of importance on the other side of that x-ray machine? I know I have! I didn’t walk through that scanning with a smile on my face!

Signs can be directional, but they can also be overwhelming! Which way do we go? Which move do we make? Which sign do we trust? Which path do we follow?

Making a move in any direction in our lives, can cause the same kind of overwhelming, confused, and even lost condition! When we are changing paths for any reason in our lives, it can be anxiety producing, to say the least! It can be frightening and scary and produce fear unless we know how to let FAITH take over!

FAITH is not the absence of fear! It is the trust and confidence to step through that fear, knowing that God will show you His path!

A path we choose in life is an action that we determine. It is a a direction we move in, a step we take, a choice we make!

FAITH in God’s path for us is letting go of the signs in our life that would scream, “CAUTION, COMMON SENSE, SECURITY,  AND, I TOLD YOU SO,” and all of the other “signs” we as humans tend to live our lives by. We step through fear and doubt, and trust our God to direct our path!

“Trust in The Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6

TRUTH BOMB

THERE IS NO FEAR IN THE SURE PATH OF GOD’S LEADING!

Speak Truth Love

What fear needs to be “cast out” of your life?

What fear is keeping you from exercising the spiritual gift God has given you?

What fear is so crippling that it grips you and renders you paralyzed and unable to move forward?

What fear in your life is becoming so debilitating that it is stronger in you than the spirit God has given you?

For me, it took a crumpled piece of yellowed paper for God to cast out the fear that was keeping me from accomplishing His purpose.

As I faced walking into a setting that holds opposition to me, I began to let fear take hold, and I became confused and even questioning what I was supposed to speak! 

I do not know what gift God has blessed you with and asked you to use for His glory and for the growth of His kingdom, but for me it is, ‘Speaking His Truth in Love.’ I had already said yes when asked to speak at this event and I had already spent weeks in prayer and study of God’s Word(His Truth), and was convinced that what I had prepared was what He wanted me to share!

But as the day drew near(the literal night before), the questioning turned to doubt, and the doubt turned to fear.

I had all these pages that I had prayed over and studied staring me in the face. I had a beautiful PowerPoint presentation with the perfect graphics and versus, but my fear was louder! It began pounding in my ears like a stick on a drum. 

BAM! BAM! BAM!

It became louder and louder until it sounded so deafening that I was sure I was supposed to change my message!

As I began “tweaking” this message, I was sure no one would receive, I was reminded that I had spoken years ago on a similar subject, and I had points prepared inside of the oldest Bible that I own.

This Bible sits by my bedside and is truly my “security blanket“ in every sense of the word! My grandma, my spiritual angel, gave it to me when I left for college. It was a very vulnerable time in my life, and it has served to be my CONSTANT in every way!

God gave me a beautiful FIND that day!

I know that’s a strange word, but I can’t think of it in any other way. 

As I was struggling through the “right“ way to say things and the “right“ versus to use and the “right” way to act,  I was praying for the right scripture and I went to my security blanket… My NASB Bible that my grandma gave me. 

It’s not leather bound and it’s completely falling apart! I’ve glued the back together and it has a cover on it, but I keep it by my bed and it truly is my security blanket. 

I begin leafing through the pages, even though so many of them are literally separated and falling apart almost frantically, like I am searching for some lost treasure or something! I needed God to say something to me!

For some reason, I decided to put my hands in the side where the cover is over the back of the Bible and I felt something crunching! It wouldn’t come out and I almost gave up, but I kept pulling at it and when I pulled it out, it was a piece of paper that had my maiden name on it. The paper was yellowed from age, and it said…

Lisa Dye

Read I John 4:18&19

People, I have been married this year for 40 years! I have not been Lisa Dye for a very long time! That means this crumpled up yellowed piece of paper had to have been in my Bible for over 40 years!

I walked out into the living room, and showed it to my husband, my personal “Bible Answer Man”, who was sitting at the table studying, and when I showed it to him, he almost got tears in his eyes. And he doesn’t cry hardly ever!!l He said, Lisa that’s your verse, that’s what God is trying to say to you!”

I opened it up and read it from my security blanket… 

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, Because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because he first loved us.” I John 4:18&19

God was clearly speaking to me that He wanted me to cast away my fear and trust in His perfect love! And more than that…He wanted me to share that love with all those that day that we’re going to listen!

We’ve all been given different gifts and we are to use them for His glory. No matter what obstacles, oppositions, even cruelty stands in our way! 

“God has given each of you a gift from His great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. “I Peter  4:10

TRUTH BOMB

THE ASSURANCE WE HAVE OF GOD’S LOVE CASTS OUT ALL FEAR!

I speak from personal experience when I say that stepping out in faith when we are afraid is anything but easy to do!

But I also speak from personal experience when I say that every single time I do step out in faith when I am afraid, always casts that fear out and holds me up and accomplishes His purposes through me!

You can trust Him friend to cast out all your fear so you can move forward in faith and love others because He loves you!

Speak Truth Love

Last week we talked about the first part (Part A) to being a true friend. I confessed to you that I have spent the majority of my life, recognizing The Part A of friendship and stopping there!  

A true friend must follow all of Proverbs 17:17, both Part A and Part B!

“A Friend loves at all times, and a brother/sister is born for adversity.” Proverbs 17:17

A True Friend does love at all times, but they are also there in times of adversity!

When you are born for something you are created for it, made for it and ready for it! If we are a true friend, then yes, we love at all times, but we are also there and ready to face the adversity that our friend is facing with them.

It is during adversity that we discover who we are really for and who is really for us. 

Because adversity makes a demand on our friendship!

Adversity demands our time, our attention and at times even tangible expressions of the love that we have for someone else. It is often our opportunity to give back!

A true friend isn’t just there to celebrate a birthday, eat cake, and throw confetti! They are also there to encourage as someone heals, to listen to someone as they reveal their broken heart, to drop everything and meet the need at hand, and to give even though it hurts and costs us much.

We are not called to be a doormat, the giving should be reciprocated when you are going through adversity. But we are also not called to put up so many boundaries that we are no longer vulnerable, real, or accessible!

Only God can give us the balance required to be a true friend! And Jesus demonstrated it for us!

I like to say that Jesus had three circles of friendship. The first and largest circle is the outer circle, and it is huge and endless!

Jesus loved everyone, and we are called to love everyone with His love also!

“Love the Lord Your God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:38-40

The second circle is smaller and has a manageable number of friends that are trusted and true. Jesus had 12. Jesus’ 12 disciples were the friends that he did life with! He poured into them with his wisdom and knowledge and love. Our second circle must include those trusted and true friends that we have the time to pour into and be poured into by.

The third circle is the inner circle of intimacy! It is the few true friends who have shown that they love at all times and are there in adversity! For Jesus, it was Peter James and John. These friends must pass the Proverbs 17:17 test they must love at all times and be there no matter what in times of adversity!

But even a Proverbs 17:17 friend will let us down. And no matter how good of a Proverbs 17:17 Friend we are, we will let our friends down. Because in our human state we fail, we falter and we even at times FALL ASLEEP!

Jesus sets the ultimate standard for our very best friend! Jesus goes up higher, out from even his innermost circle, to the only one who never fails, falters, or falls asleep. He goes to God and so must we!

“One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin. But, there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother/sister!“ 

Proverbs 18:24

TRUTH BOMB

WHEN GOD IS OUR BEST FRIEND WE WILL NEVER BE LET DOWN!

My prayer is that we will all strive to be a true Proverbs 17:17 Friend to all those that God puts in our life! But, that we will run to our very Best Friend, God, and point our friends to Him!

Speak Truth Love

God has been speaking to me lately about what it means to be a true friend.

When we are believers, we are blessed to be a part of a sacred Sisterhood!

Our friends are not just simply our friends, they are sisters in Christ!

While we may all “walk to the beat of a different drum,” with our own unique personalities and skills, we follow the same Savior. His words are the ones we listen to above all others and His ways are the ones we walk in despite the different paths we could go down!

In this world and culture we live in, there are so many loud voices vying for our attention! There are so many paths to choose and directions to follow. We, too easily, can become confused and allow foreign voices to speak louder than our Saviors’ voice! 

I am thankful to God for being a part of His family! I love that He has given me a sacred sisterhood to help me navigate His paths and hear His voice, the loudest. I never want to take my sisterhood for granted. I want to be a true friend! 

On my own, I am not able. But with God, I know that He can make me more than able! His word speaks loud and clear to what a true friend is!

Proverbs 17:17

“A true Friend loves at all times…”

For years and years I have listened to this verse and used it as my roadmap for being a true friend.

A true Friends love is consistent! It “loves it all times!“ It is not dependent on convenience or availability. It is always there without conditions!

A true friend love is dependable! It can be counted on! It follows I Corinthians 13:5,

“…it does not insist on it’s own way, it is not irritable or resentful.”

This list can be exhausting and difficult to live by. It can make us want to run the other way and throw in the towel!

But remember, we are not just any sisterhood…we are a sacred sisterhood! We have the help of our Savior to be who He has called us to be in the lives of those we love!

But if you find that list, long and exhausting…buckle your seatbelts! What God has been showing me is that I have been living my life in my sisterhood, with only half of the verse He has called me to love my sisters by.

“A true friend loves at all times,

and a brother/sister is born for adversity!”  Proverbs 17:17

There is a comma, not a period after,

“A friend loves at all times,”

I am not just called to love my friends, I am also called to be there in times of adversity!

During adversity, we discover what kind of a friend we really are.

Why? Because adversity makes a demand on our friendship. It demands our time, attention, and even tangible expressions of our love for our sisters.

A true friend isn’t just there to celebrate with you. They are also there to encourage you, to build you up, to support you and yes, even at times to redirect you when you’ve gotten off the Savior’s path!

TRUTH BOMB

A TRUE FRIEND IN CHRIST REALIZES FRIENDSHIP IS A SACRED SISTERHOOD!

I developed three prayers for me to follow so that God can help me be the true friend He’s called me to be.

I would love to share them with you and ask you to pray them through this week with me! Then, if you’ll meet me back here on the Blog next week, I’ll share the second half of God’s call to sacred sisterhood for all of us!

Spoiler alert…HE IS SMACK DAB IN THE MIDDLE OF IT!

Prayer Points

*1)  God, help me know that you and you alone, are my best friend!

“I will never leave you or forsake you.”Hebrews 13:5b

*2) God, please help me to have your wisdom and discernment in knowing who my true friends are.“

“A friend loves at all times,“ Proverbs 17:17a

*3) God, help me be the friend that you have called me to be for my friends.

“…and a brother/sister is born for adversity.”Proverbs 17:17b

AMEN!

Speak Truth Love

Happy Resurrection Sunday!

He has risen! He has risen, indeed!!

The Lenten season is over.

My time of fasting from social media has come to an end! 

Staying off of social media was refreshing. 

Not writing my Bblog, and posting it on social media was excruciating!

But my commitment to God, for my Lenten fast, was to focus completely on God and listen for His voice only and allow no other voices in! 

Today, however, is the day that ended my fast. But far greater than that, it is the day that ended hopelessness for all mankind! 

Jesus Christ conquered the grave, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven, giving us all who receive Him eternal life! That is our blessed Hope!

God has given me a gift to Speak His Truth in Love! Not having an outlet to do that for 40 days was rough! 

When God gives us a spiritual gift, He wants us to use it for His glory.  

God clearly called me away from it for a time, to focus completely on Him! But I am praising Him today, that I’m back to exercising it!

Resurrection Sunday is proceeded by two very difficult days. In Christendom we call them Good Friday, and Silent Saturday. This year especially, they held great meaning for me, and a solemn soberness. God encouraged me, as I was reading through the gospels, to put myself in the place of His followers!

Unlike me, on this side of the cross, they did not know what I know! When Jesus was taken from them, and was beaten, tortured, mocked, and nailed to a cross, they did not know what was going to happen on Sunday.

Their beloved Rabbi, that they had left business and family to follow, was taken away by the very government they had hoped Him to overthrow. Not only that, the religious leaders had accused Him, and found Him guilty of blasphemy, and cried out for His crucifixion! 

As His followers stood by shocked and fearful, listening to the crowds cry, “crucify him, crucify him,” all their hopes seemed hopeless.

They had to be filled with disillusionment and were brokenhearted. Their hope had turned to hopelessness!

Have you found yourself lately being disillusioned? Have those you’ve loved and trusted let you down? Have you endured circumstances that have left you brokenhearted? Have you watched your dreams crumble and you have turned from Hope to hopelessness? If so, then you understand what the followers of Jesus were enduring!

Have you found yourself confused, perplexed and losing hope like these two disciples on the road to Emaus?

When asked what their attitude was about Jesus and his crucifixion and death they responded…

“But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things have happened.” Luke 24:21

Their disillusionment had become so strong that it was turning in to brokenhearted hopelessness! They were walking beside Jesus himself, and not even recognizing they were on the road with their living Savior.

Have you been walking on your own “road to Emaus”, for so long that your Hope has turned to hopelessness? Do you find yourself disillusioned by circumstances that don’t change? Or even worse, are you brokenhearted as you witness circumstances in your life, not changing and you know that, even though God has the power to change them, He has not changed them yet?

If so, you are still living in, “Silent Saturday!” Everything is still and unchanged! It feels like the dream has died, and circumstances will never change.

This is the true definition of walking by faith, and not by sight! We can’t see what God is doing! We don’t hear what He is saying! But Faith tells us that we can have hope because we know that our God is faithful even in the silence!

In our disillusionment and brokenheartedness we are called to walk by faith in the waiting, just like the disciples were over 2000 years ago as they followed Jesus and watched Him go to the cross, and be buried in a tomb.

We can have Hope today, because our faith has been made sight by the empty tomb!

We serve a Risen Savior, and He is in the world today! He is in our hearts and lives each and every day, even when we see Him or don’t see Him, even when we hear Him or don’t hear Him yet!

HE IS ALIVE! And through His resurrection our hopelessness is turned to hope!

TRUTH BOMB

Our hopelessness is turned to hope in the resurrection of Jesus!

In closing friends, I leave you with these words of encouragement;

“May the God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope!”  Romans 15:13

It’s so good to be back! Looking forward to continuing Truth Bomb Tuesdays with you! See you there!

Speak Truth Love 

“BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD.”

Psalm 46:10

It’s not Tuesday, it’s not even Wednesday, but I am dropping a bomb! 

Not a TRUTH BOMB BUT A FASTING BOMB!💣 

After 8 years of writing my Blog every Tuesday and dropping countless TRUTH BOMBS, God is leading me to pause and fast from it for these 40 days of Lent!

This is really huge for me! And that’s why it took me a couple days to continue praying and confirm that this is indeed what God is calling me to do. God spoke clearly to me eight years ago about writing my Blog and posting it every week. 

I listened to  Him then and He has been more than faithful! And I must listen to him now!

After my experience at the beginning of this year with 21 days of fasting and prayer, I felt closer to God than ever. I truly felt Him calling me to give up anything that got in the way of leaning on Him and only Him.

It was not an easy fast, but it drew me so close to Him that I truly did not want it to end!

Now that we are into the Lenten season, I find myself asking Him once again, what is it I need to fast from in order to have nothing hinder or distract my complete dependence on Him.

The answer for me has come in fasting from social media. This includes my weekly contribution to social media in my weekly Blog.

This is a very difficult one for me! I prayed and prayed and ask Him again and again, but I am convinced that He wants me to keep writing, but not to post for this Lenten season. I pray that at the end of this time of prayer and fasting, I will be able to post again in April. And until then please know I love you, I am praying for you, and I hope that your Lenten season is full of drawing near to God and knowing that sometimes it takes us being still to know that He and He alone is God!

Speak Truth Love

They say, “All you need is Love!”

When the world says it, I don’t buy it! To the world love is a two way street. You meet my needs and if and when you do I will love you. That is of course if I feel like it. With the world and its point of view, love is CONDITIONAL!

When God say’s it, I believe it! God asks nothing of me in return but willingly and sacrificially GAVE everything because He loves you and I UNCONDITIONALLY!

“FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONE AND ONLY SON.”

John 3:16

I Love, Love because it is not a word, it is an action. Love is an unconditional act that gives even when it does not receive!  

And that Unconditional Love is for everyone! It does not make a difference what you do, or what you have done, where you are from, or what you look like! 

Love is an Unconditional, Free gift from God for everyone who will receive it!

…”FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD…”

I Love Valentines Day because it gives me an opportunity to show others the Love of God!

God has already given us the best Valentine, Jesus! Valentine’s Day offers us the opportunity to give Love back to Him by loving others the way He Loves us!

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, who is God asking you to share His love with?

TRUTH BOMB

GOD LOVES UNCONDITIONALLY AND THROUGH HIM I CAN TOO!

Happy LOVE Day my friends!

I Love you and GOD Loves you More!

Speak Truth Love

As the storm rages around us and roars furiously outside, it can be hard to feel the faithfulness of God.

When our situation continues to be unchanged, and we have prayed for so long.

When our loved one’s condition does not improve, but only grows worse.

When that bank account number never seems to go up, but always down.

When that health issue does not heal, but instead, the pain grows and becomes almost unbearable.

When that relationship does not mend, but seems to be at the breaking point.

When we find ourselves in the “storms of life”, it can be difficult to see the faithfulness of God.

I have found myself the last few days in a physical storm! All of California has been hit with what they have called, ‘Atmospheric river!’

This storm has not played favorites. It has extended from every point north in California to every point south in California.  It has caused floods, it has caused mud slides, it has caused power outages, it has downed trees that have stretched across roadways and highways alike. It has caused traffic jams and traffic to come to a complete halt. It has even caused death as it has raged on and on for days!

The storm outside seemed to intersect with a storm I had going on inside! Working hard, and trying to provide for my sweet mama while she ages and grows more and more confused and frustrated, has not only been a challenge emotionally, but also mentally as I fight to ensure she is well provided for and taken care of! 

“It should be easier than this!” I heard myself screaming out as I was on the 15th phone call for the third day in a row! Why is the system so difficult? Why does it feel like they’re fighting against you instead of with you? Why God has this been going on for so long? When will it end?

I walked out the door feeling like my heart and soul were twisted and in turmoil from my emotional storm. As I faced the physical storm outside, I was dressed to face it with my rain boots, my puffy coat with a hood,  and my umbrella. Yet I continued to feel unprotected with the fierce winds and the debris scattered all around me.

Is this my life? Am I just to live in raging storms and strong winds with debris scattered everywhere? Where are you God? Do you see me? Do you hear me?

Do you see my heartbreaking at broken relationships? Do you feel me pleading for answers? How long must I wait? Are you there? I know that you are! I need to see you!

My tired and weary heart and soul felt as tossed and blown as the scattered tree branches, leaves, and pine needles all around me! I plopped my weary body into the drivers seat of my car, closed the door, turned on the ignition and started singing  praise songs to God, even though I felt as fragile as the tiny sprinkling of raindrops hitting my windshield. 

I merged on the interstate and glanced out my left window. There it was! The sign of God’s lasting faithfulness! He had heard my cries! He had answered the cry of my heart! He had placed it there in the sky that morning, just for me, like He did for Noah and his family all those thousands of years ago!

God placed a rainbow in the sky! He had wrapped His faithfulness with a bow just for me that day! He knew how much I needed the reminder!

“I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant (promise), between me and the earth.”

Genesis 9:13

God is always faithful! It is His nature! He always sees me! He always hears me when I cry out! He knows and understands everything that I am going through, and He cares about every tiny detail! God will never leave me, and He will never forsake me! Sometimes my faith just needs it wrapped up with a bow to remind me!

What are you going through in your life that you need God to wrap up with His bow? He hears you, He sees you, and He is faithful!

TRUTH BOMB

GOD WRAPS HIS FAITHFULNESS TO US WITH A BOW TO REMIND US THAT HE IS IN CONTROL OF EVERY STORM IN OUR LIVES!

Speak Truth Love