TIME TO RECHARGE

TIME TO RECHARGE

9 o’clock the other night I’m watching TV, and the lights go out. No electricity in the whole neighborhood. Thoughts fly through my mind in rapid succession like bullets from an automatic rifle: “I’ve got a generator. I need to take it outside. I have to get my flashlight. It’s dark. I won’t be able to see out there. Sh..t, I should have recharged the batteries the last time. Do I have any other flashlights?  In my car. Phew!” 

 

I’m just about to get up out of my chair, and all the lights and sounds come charging back to life.

A couple of days later, I thought about not having the batteries ready for my flashlight when we had the power outage. It reminded me of the Bible story about the ten virgins with the oil lamps. They took their lamps to meet the bridegroom and go to the wedding. But only five took extra oil for their lamps so they’d be prepared. The bridegroom was late, so the five without extra oil were running out of light. They thought they could borrow some from the others, but that wasn’t going to happen.

 

“Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them: but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. 

 

“And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then, all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, ‘Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.’”

 

“And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us.’ But he answered and said, ‘Verily I say unto you, I know you not.’ Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh” (Matt. 25:1-13).

 

We learn from this passage that each of us is responsible for getting our own oil. No one else is responsible to read the Bible for us, and no one else can do our believing for us. The women who were prepared went on to the party and the others missed out. This parable is about being ready when Jesus comes back. Nobody knows when that will be, but there will be a day when Jesus returns and everything changes.

 

“The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Pet. 3:10). “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God” (1 Thess. 4: 16).

 

Jesus said that when judgment day comes, every man will have to account for every idle word he speaks (Matt. 12:36), and fire will try every work. Our works are to be built on the foundation of Jesus Christ. “If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss” (1 Cor. 3:13-15). “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be?” (2 Pet. 3:11).

 

People want to feel that their lives are meaningful and that they are contributing good things into this world. Once Jesus comes back, we don’t get the chance to do it over again. We only have one life to live here on earth right now, no reincarnation. We need to make every day count.

 

We don’t want to miss a chance to say something kind, do something significant for someone else, give a smile, help someone, minister healing, cast out a devil spirit, etc. “We are all the children of light” (1 Thess. 5:5), and we can “walk as children of light” (Eph. 5:8). “Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel” (Matt. 5:15). Let your particular light shine.

 

The end of our world is imminent, and according to the Bible, it could be any day. And for those of us who have experienced near-death events, we also know that our time on earth could end unexpectedly. So, let’s make a difference here while we can. If we think more often about Jesus’ return, we will live our lives more like the women who carried extra oil, rather than the ones whose light ran out.

 

As it says in Romans 13:12: “The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.”

 

If we live like today could be our last, it just could be our best.

 

After the lights came back on the other night, I recharged the batteries for my flashlight. Today, I’m recharging my heart for the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Love, Carolyn

 

More TRUTHS from God’s Word

And HOW TO APPLY these truths in everyday living—

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GIVING OUR LORD SPOKEN RECOGNITION IN DAILY LIFE

GIVING OUR LORD SPOKEN RECOGNITION IN DAILY LIFE

It occurred to me this week that many Christians, including me, are neglecting part of our mission as followers of Jesus Christ. How? You ask. Well, we just don’t talk about the Lord in our everyday speech. God does so much for us. And yet, when we relate our daily events, we use a lot more of the phrase “I did this and that, and great things happened” rather than “Jesus did this for me” or “God opened this for me, AND THIS IS HOW He did it.” When the Lord answers prayers, we give the recognition in private, but too often, we don’t acknowledge the spiritual interjection publicly in our everyday speech or in our written communications.

 

When we’ve taken Jesus as our Lord, our lives aren’t nearly as much about us as they are about our Lord and brother Jesus Christ, and our Father God, the true God of heaven. As it says in Philippians 2:13: “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” Whether we recognize it or not, God loves us and is personally interested and involved in everything about our lives every day.

 

God has given us a personal Lord to guide us, talk with us, help us, and be with us all the time. He’s arranged for signs and wonders to happen around us. He’s given us angels to protect us, warn us, and push us in the right direction at times when we are hesitant. We have the gift of the Holy Spirit to teach us, as Jesus told his disciples: “The Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things (John 14:26a ASV). God has also arranged for other Christian believers to befriend us, and He’s even inspired unbelievers to do certain things that benefit us.

 

When we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, God not only rescued us forever from Satan’s hell, but He took oversight of us and continues to orchestrate as many of His blessings toward us as we will accept. He certainly deserves our spoken recognition and praise.

 

I love how the King James version translates Philippians 1:27: “Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.” I know that several translations replace the word “conversation” with phrases like “your manner of life” or “how you conduct yourself,” and that is definitely the bigger picture, but what we say out loud is a huge part of who we are and who we represent.

 

2 Corinthians 5:20 tells us: “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” If we are ambassadors for the Lord, we need to talk about it.

 

I think the saying, “Actions speak louder than words,” has been taken way too far. We have over-emphasized the action part and nearly annihilated the words part. But I really don’t think any of us have done this on purpose. It’s been a sneaky trick of the devil, so much so that it’s difficult for people to even figure out HOW to talk about the Lord’s involvement with us.

 

To learn how to do anything comfortably, we must first start.  And Job speaks God’s promise and His truth: “Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase“ (Job 8:7).

 

So, if someone may need a bit of help in this speaking category, here are just a few phrases we could start with: “Jesus did this for me,” “God opened that door,” or “Jesus brought that person to me,” or “The Lord got that person away from me.”

 

These verbal recognitions of the Lord’s presence in our lives are part of how we present ourselves as ambassadors for our Lord. And using these phrases are doing the commission the Lord gave us from Mark 16:15: “And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach and publish openly the good news’” (Mark 16:15 AMPC).

 

We are the courageous ones. We are the Lord’s ambassadors to help humanity. Start today, and others will do likewise.  

 

Let’s fasten this in our brains and speak it out of our mouths: “EVERY good gift…is from above” (James 1:17).

 

Love, Carolyn

In my books, WINGS: A Journey in Faith Vol 1 & 2, you’ll find awesome spiritual adventures and wisdom from the Bible that is perfect for applying to our current lives.

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REPENTING UNLOCKS THE DOORS TO GREATER FREEDOM

REPENTING UNLOCKS THE DOORS TO GREATER FREEDOM

I love this quote from T.L. Osborn, one of the great healing evangelists of the ’70s: “Jesus did enough! He did enough even to cover the worst thing we can do. He did enough for ALL mankind, FOREVER. There’s nothing we can do to shock Him, scare Him away, disgust Him so much He’d ignore us. He got tempted by whatever tempts us. And when He was crucified for all the results of giving in to those temptations, He took it to the devil and shook it in his face and dumped it off at the devil’s feet: ‘There, finished for all time!’”

 

Jesus paid the ultimate price for every sin against nature, against God Himself, against each other, and the things we do against ourselves, as well. But if someone doesn’t think they’ve ever really sinned, then they don’t believe the Bible, and they’re not going to ask the Lord for forgiveness because they don’t think they’ve done anything wrong.

 

People may not be concerned about changing anything they do or think. Some who can’t say they are truly sorry for anything they’ve done to God, themselves, or anyone else will not perceive any need for a savior. And they don’t think they need a Lord because they believe they’re doing okay by themselves. They think life’s full of necessary bumps, and they’ll handle it themselves in their own ways. These people have been taught to accept themselves as they are. This philosophy is deceptive.

 

God, our creator, accepts us as we are so that He can help us change into better. Anyone who believes they can’t be better is being deceived. And anyone who doesn’t want to be better is also deceived.

 

To be a better version of ourselves, we need to be genuinely sorry for things we’ve thought, said, and done in our lives that we know in our hearts were wrong. It’s not necessarily shameful that we did them, but it is shameful never to say we’re sorry about them. Jesus told his disciples to repent.  

 

The word “repent” is translated from a Greek word, “metanoeo,” meaning to think differently afterward, to reconsider morally. It means changing one’s mind for the better and heartily amending oneself.

 

Right after Jesus’ experience in the wilderness, where the devil tried to get him to say and do things against God, Jesus came back to the people, and the first thing he preached was repentance. “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 4:17). We learn from Jesus that repenting is paramount to one’s freedom from deception.

 

Jesus also said: “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matt. 9:13). And Matthew 11:20 tells us this about Jesus: “Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not.”

 

When a person first decides to believe in Jesus and want Him in their lives, repentance is essential. They say they’re sorry for all past sins, and they accept Jesus as Lord of their lives because they know they have not done a very good job at leading themselves. They believe He took their sins to the cross and that He even went to hell for them and then was raised from the dead to everlasting life.

 

But repentance is an ongoing thing. A lot of Christians think that repentance is for things like thinking evil of others, being rebellious, swearing, sexual sins, stuff like that. Yes, those things need to change, but we also need to repent for thinking too little of ourselves. We are not to be doormats that people walk over and wipe their dirty boots on! 

 

The older and wiser we get, the more we may reflect upon our past, which means we discover a few new things we need to think differently about now, things to reconsider Biblically. I know that has been the case with me. Things I’d written off, things I did where I thought I was right, and didn’t find out until I was 50 or 60 that I wasn’t right at all. But I found that when I told God I was sorry and repented of my past ways of thinking, I experienced new freedom, and it’s been awesome! Heavy loads I didn’t even know I was carrying were lifted off.

 

It is always God’s will that we have a better and better life physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Repentance is a significant part of freeing ourselves from specific ideas and deeds that God knew about, but maybe we didn’t, so they continued to burden us, popping up in our minds and holding us captive. Everybody has had wrong thoughts and done wrong things, so if they continue to bother us, let’s get free! Repent NOW and receive a renewed liberty and righteousness in Christ.  

 

“Stand fast therefore in the LIBERTY wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Gal. 5:1).

 

Paul speaks to the believers in Corinth: 2 Cor. 7:8b-9a: “I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season. Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to REPENTANCE: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner” (2 Cor. 7:8a-9b). 

 

2 Cor. 9:10 “Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and INCREASE THE FRUITS OF YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”

Love, Carolyn

 

In my books, WINGS: A Journey in Faith Vol 1 & 2, you’ll find awesome spiritual adventures, and wisdom from the Bible that is perfect for applying to our current lives.

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WE'RE SMARTER THAN WE THINK

WE’RE SMARTER THAN WE THINK

Many years ago, I read a book by Zainab Salbi, the daughter of Saddam Hussein's pilot. It's called BETWEEN TWO WORLDS: ESCAPE FROM TYRANNY: GROWING UP IN THE SHADOW OF SADDAM.

 

Zainab described the terror Sadam inflicted on those around him: “Fear of Saddam took over every Iraqi heart and mind. He was everywhere and anywhere, and any stray negative thought about him made us watch our backs. As a child, I grew up watching hours and hours of TV coverage of him surprising families in the middle of the afternoon by entering their kitchens and opening their refrigerators. I guess this was a dictator’s version of a reality show; the entire country could peer into people’s cupboards and see what they were having for lunch. I didn’t understand why he revealed the intimate lives of people on national TV until the night my family and I had dinner with Saddam."

 

“It wasn’t one dinner but years of lunches and dinners, because my father was his private pilot. At times, my parents would be in their bed falling asleep when suddenly they had to wake up and entertain Saddam in the middle of the night, making sure that they looked bright and excited."

 

“He was charismatic and engaging, but he also spread fear. In the midst of one family lunch, he asked everyone what they thought of Napoleon. At face value, you would think that’s just a lunch conversation among friends. And that is indeed how one friend answered, saying: 'Napoleon is a man who rolled down from the hill of power as fast as he rose up to it.' Saddam answered: 'Are you referring to Napoleon, or are you referring to Napoleon [referring to himself]?' If there is such thing as air leaving the room, then that was that moment. His switch from friendliness to anger was common, and we all knew he killed friends and relatives; no one would be spared.”

 

Zainab Salib’s book is fascinating, but it was more insightful to me when I experienced being in the presence of someone who exhibited characteristics similar to Hussein! This person knew very private things about the people who worked under him, and he used the knowledge of those things to intimidate and control. I believe evil spirits told him these things because they were intimate things that no one spoke about, and certainly not to him.

 

Ecclesiastes 1:9 tells us: “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” At first, this looks like it may be a contradiction to other verses in the Bible, like Isaiah 43:19, where God says: “Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”

 

There are no contradictions in the Bible, just verses, concepts, and phrases we may not yet understand. This is one of those.

 

E. W. Bullinger tells us in his notes on Ecclesiastes 1:9 in the Companion Bible: “‘Under the sun’ is a phrase that is particular to Ecclesiastes and is used 29 times. It is equivalent to “upon the earth,” and it refers to all that is connected with earthly things as such, and with man apart from God.”

So, we see that the phrase saying there is nothing new refers only to basic human and demonic things, NOT the spiritually wonderful things that born- again believers and our Lord God and His son Jesus Christ are capable of.

 

Separated from God, there is and never will be anything new. The devil can’t create anything. So, when we learn to recognize a demon or a demonic mechanism, it will always operate in the same way as the Bible describes it – there are variations, but the basics are always the same. Demons exhibit the very same characteristics in leaders of countries as in leaders of three or four people or even less. The same kind of evil people and evil ways we read about in the Old Testament, exist today.

 

When we examine and recognize the evil we read about in the Bible, we will understand and recognize the evils we see today. Anything the devils do this world now has been done before.

The devil is not a creator. If we’ve seen him operate in a certain evil way once, we recognize when we see it again—nothing new. That’s why God reminds us in 2 Corinthians 2:11: “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.”

 

We’re smart! We actually know more than we think we know. We’re smarter spiritually than we give ourselves credit for! I remember an incident where I was having a conversation with a 16-year-old young man, and we happened to get on the subject of demons. He was not a born-again believer, but his knowledge regarding devil spirits was remarkable!

 

I also had the privilege of meeting a young lady at a movie once who was involved with her friends in a deliverance ministry, and ever since that encounter, I pray for the younger believers who are whole-heartedly now involved in doing the Lord’s work.

 

It’s astonishing to think about who we are and our creative possibilities. God has not stopped creating! What God was in the beginning, He is now. Yes, He uses the same elements that He originally created, but nothing in the Bible says He can’t create more.

 

An example from the New Testament is in Ephesians 2:10, where it says: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Did you know that the word “Christ” means “the anointed one”? That same anointing is in us. Think about that! It’s a spiritual anointing from God our Father, different from anything else.

 

In Psalm 51:10, David asks God to “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” He can do that. In Isaiah 57:18, God says: “I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord, and I will heal him.”

 

You see, God is still creating and even creating what we say. So, let’s dare to say what God says: “I have peace, and I am healed.”

 

With the devil, there is no new thing under the sun. It’s all old and rotten. Use the Bible to get smart. You’re already way smarter than you know, so believe what you see.

 

Contrary to the limitations of the devil, we have a creative God! If He can create a new heart in us, the possibilities are limitless. As we venture into this new year, let’s expect greater miracles, greater successes, greater movements of God, and more wonderful life experiences than ever before.

 

Happy New Year 2025!

 

Love, Carolyn

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