Move Over Myrtle

Lynn Cowell

From
Proverb 31 Ministries

"Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord's renown for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed." Isaiah 55:13 (NIV)

I could never figure out why my crape myrtle trees didn't look like "that."

When I drove my kids to school on those hot back-to-school days, I would see gorgeous myrtles all over the neighborhood, heavy laden with puffy flowers in hot pink, deep purple or pure white...but my myrtles never looked that.

One friend said they needed heavy pruning in the winter. So when the temperature dropped and all the leaves fell, I drug out my loppers and chopped away. There! That should do it! I thought. Summer came; summer went. No flowers.

Crape myrtles are not one of those trees that still look great without flowers. In fact, I grew tired of them in my front garden where they gawked at me, flowerless, day after day.

So, I called in a professional gardener. He informed me that crape myrtles need sunlight, so it didn't really matter what I did to those trees; they were not going to bloom in my cool, shaded yard. My choices were: put up with the lack of beautiful blooms, or pull them out. I opted for change.

Life can be a lot like my myrtles. Sometimes, we are just not blooming. We might try the recommendations of friends. You need a hobby. You need a different job. You need a man. Wait until this season is over and then make a change. Often, though, what we really need is Sonlight. The Professional Gardener will tell you getting in the Son is the only thing that is going to bring beauty.

In Isaiah 55:13 the prophet says that instead of briers, the myrtle will grow. Do you have any briers that need to be exchanged for myrtles in your life? Are you effective and are you living what the Bible refers to as an abundant life in Christ? Just as other trees in my yard cast too much shade for my myrtles, is there something in your life that is casting a shadow, blocking your Sonlight? If so, it is time to make the move into the Son.

Getting into the Sonlight, like moving a tree, is no easy task. It often involves change; sometimes a dramatic change. A change in habits, a ridding of addictions, a move in friendships, a laying down of dreams, or a picking up of one that you have feared. Part of soaking up the Son also includes spending consistent time with Jesus in prayer and reading His Word each day.

Don't be afraid of change, friend. The Psalmist said that pain comes in the night, but joy comes in the morning. In the end, the blooms that follow will tell the tale of the power of life in the Son.

Prayer:
Powerful Jesus, that is what I need You to be toda y. Powerful Jesus. I see the shadow on my life and often I fear that it will overtake me. You have promised that in You, with You, all things are possible. Show me where to move today Jesus, so that I position myself in Your Sonlight. Give me the discipline to study Your words so that my life will be for Your renown and an everlasting sign to others of life in You. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

If My People Will Pray...

I have a good friend named JoAnn who received a prophecy I'd like to share with you.  She wrote it out as she got it just the way it was given to her and I am going to share it exactly as she did with me.

"The oil spill in the gulf is only the beginning of this nation's troubles.  The only hope is 'confident expectations'.  The only hope for America is for her to wake up from her stupor and cry out to God.  When the Church goes to her knees and cries out to God for mercy He will hear the prayers of the Godly and answer and heal their land."

Wow!  Confident expectations.  I believe we are in for troubled times.  How long can we expect God to be patient with us?  How much more corruption before The Almighty has had enough?  It's shown in the Bible over and over again throughout history that God will only let things go so far before He looses His wrath.

This prophecy is full of gloom and doom, but it also full of the promise of God's wonderful mercy.  Confident expectation; we can confidently expect God to heal this land.  Hallelujah! We have the promise that if we pray with confidence, that he will give us another chance.  What a gracious and loving Father.   I hope in the times to come, you will remember to have 'confident expectations'.  God is a good and loving God.  He only wants what's best for us.  I hope you will spend time on your knees asking the Lord to turn this nation around, to heal our land.

The Ugly Truth About Child Molestation.

The enemy is running rampant with our children.  Fatherless homes, drugs, poverty and abuse.  How many kids in this nation go to bed hungry at night?  How many are homeless, abandoned, forgotten? How many are exposed to drugs and alcohol on a daily basis?  Way too many.  One is too many.  These are the children that we think are more likely to be a victim of sexual abuse, and many are because of their vulnerability and need for love and acceptance.  But what about your children?  Could it happen to them?  Yes, it could.  A huge number of child sexual abuse victims (over 90%) know and trust their abusers.  We as parents know and trust them as well.  We have always told our children not to talk to strangers, but strangers are a very small percent of the problem.  Most child rapists and molesters are family friends and relatives.  Trusted neighbors, that nice guy down the street that plays catch with your kids and offers to babysit.  Uncle Charlie or the older guy they call gramps, who are more interested in playing with the kids than joining the adults at a party.  They gain your trust, that's how they are able to do it.  We trust them, the kids trust and look up to them.  They worm their way into our lives, we become comfortable with their presence in our lives and when nobody's looking, these predators attack.  We must wake up!  We must be careful who our kids are spending time with.  If you have a bad feeling, if something doesn't feel quite right, it's probably not!  Go with your gut! Parents think that their kids would tell them if something was going on, but many times because of the trust factor, they fell like they were the ones to do something wrong.  Predators like this work very hard to build that trust, its a calculated process, they know exactly what they are doing.  Don't think it couldn't happen to your child.  It's happening to our children right under our very noses.  It's time we take our children back. 

One last thing.  Do you pray regularly for your children? Do you pray God's hand of protection over them against violence and evil of every kind?   God hears our prayers and loves our children even more than we do.

In End Times Many Believers Will Be Deceived

I was watching television the other day and came across the channel Current-TV.  I had really never watched this channel before, but the program caught my attention.  It was a very interesting documentary about an American Muslim boy from a small town in Alabama who had become an important militant leader for Islam in the Jihad in Somalia at age 25.  During this program a  commercial for a  psychic book came on telling people that if they buy this book they can know and change their future by discovering their past through past lives (reincarnations), interpretation of dreams and soul travel.  Come on, really...soul travel?  The number to call was 800~LOVE~GOD!!  It struck me that there will be some believers who will call this simply because of the phone number.  I wonder just how many souls the enemy will win with this strategic marketing ploy?  One is too many.  How foolish mortal men are. Just something to think about.

Human Trafficking

Lately, God has been working overtime revealing much to my heart and I know my life will never be the same.  I have been asking Him to show me what I am supposed to be doing to further His Kingdom.  I recently attended a Lisa Bevere conference in Joplin, Mo.  My eyes were opened to human trafficking.  Her family's ministry is Messenger International.  Human trafficking prevention is one of the things Lisa is passionate about.  They are working to free  women and children enslaved in Cambodia, Thailand  and India.  Human traffickers uses women and children for bond-servants, and more often for sex slaves being forced into prostitution, selling them sometimes a dozen times a day.  How could this happen in this day and age I wondered while Lisa was showing photos of her latest trip to Cambodia.  What horrible country would allow this to  happen?  What kind of government officials in those vile countries could sleep at night knowing their own women and children were drugged and tortured and sold in prostitution to foreign business men. I was sickened and angry!  Then...she said that there are hundreds of thousands of women and children enslaved and sold into prostitution in the United States.  What?  Did I hear that right?  We have human trafficking going on in this country?  The United States?  The greatest country in the world?   My country? My first thought was that the same human traffickers are bringing some of these foreign women and children to our country to be sold as prostitutes in exchange for their eventual freedom.  That is not the case. Some are kidnapped and some of them are brought her thinking they will be working towards their freedom only to find that the work was sex and there would be no freedom, no hope.  Lisa proceeded to tell us that over 100,000 of them are young American girls, boys and women.  My knees went weak and I had to sit down.  I felt like I had been punched in the stomach.   All evening the thought kept coming to me that somebody has to do something about this.   

As I said,  I have been praying and asking God to show me what he would have me do, what was my mission?  The human trafficking in America kept coming back to me at odd times during the day, in the middle of the night, even in my dreams.  But I knew that God wouldn't have me tackle this.  I kept thinking that it's just to dirty and evil for me.  I don't have the stomach for it.  He knows that, so that can't be it.  I just kept praying and asking and pushing the human trafficking thing away.  But...it won't go away.  It's there.  So...I give up Lord.  OK.  Now what do I do with it?  

I have been searching the subject and find mostly statistical government reports and lots of international organizations for foreign countries, but I am being led to keep it right her in the U.S.  I have found the blog Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation which has several links to various organizations, so I am going to look some of them over and try to find out more.  If you know of any good Christian organizations that work here in the U.S to free our women and children, please leave a comment or contact me.  I'd like to know what you think.  Please click on the comment link below this post and give me your feedback.

Be Blessed,
Celene

The Big Tom Movie

Wow! This short video speaks for itself.  I don't even need to set it up.  Light does prevail against darkness, hallelujah!

Click this link to watch the movie    The Big Tom Movie

Be Blessed,
Celene Harrelson

p.s.  Please click the comment link below this post and let me know your thoughts!

IS BEING SAVED ENOUGH?

That's the question God has laid on my heart. I am a born again Christian, I love Jesus, I know without doubt that I am going to Heaven. I am a member of a wonderful Spirit filled Bible based church. Until recently I thought that was good enough.  I have been feeling the urgings of the Holy Spirit telling me it's not enough.  It's all fine and good that I am going to Heaven, but who am I going to take with me?  What am I going to say to Him when He asks me why I just sat around waiting for Heaven when there were so many lost souls and so much suffering?  I am a daughter of the Most High God.  Would He have me be content with my own salvation while the prince of darkness devours those in my circle of influence? There is so much pain, despair and darkness all around us.  In a small community like the one I live in it's not always glaringly obvious, but it's there nonetheless.  There are hurting people all around us.  There is lack all around us.  Abuse is happening all around us.  Addictions are being fed all around us.  So I put to you the same question that God has laid on my heart.  Did Jesus suffer unspeakable agony, unbearable pain, humiliation and the separation from His Father and death on the cross so that we could just hang out and wait for Heaven?  He is calling us for so much more!  There are 100,000 children every year in this country, THIS COUNTRY, who are involved in  human trafficking! There are homeless people living on our streets, children going to bed cold and hungry.  We may not be able to go to some of these places of need, but we can give money to those who can. I know, I used the same excuse.  I can't afford to give more.  Let me gently  remind you as the Lord has reminded me.  It's not our money, it's His. We have so much because he generously gave it to us. He expects us to give to the Kingdom of Heaven.   There is so much in our own communities that we can do.  Deliver food to the elderly, volunteer at a shelter or nursing home, bring someone to church, just be a blessing to others, shine your light into the darkness any way you can and at every opportunity.   
Matthew 5:16
In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

So, I ask again...Is being saved enough?

A CALL TO ACTION

I recently attended a 2 day Women's Conference with Lisa Bevere entitled Moving Forward.  She is an awesome woman of God!  The jist of her message  was a call to action to the women of the Church...God's Church, the Body of Christ.  A call to actively do something!  The fact is that God has called each of us to do more than to love him.  We are to love one another.   Jesus gave us a just one new commandment before he left:
³⁴"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."  John 13:34-35
It's easy for us to say that we love our neighbors, actually pretty easy to do when our kids play together, we chat with each other over our picket fences, they water our flowers for us when we are on vacation, invite us to BBQ's, we watch the big game together. But what if... our neighbor is a prostitute or gay or infected with AIDS?  What if he's an addict, is elderly, or a poor widow with children, homeless, fatherless, lonely, destitute, abused, hungry?  Those are the neighbors Jesus was referring to.  Not such a pleasant thought now, is it?   Look around you.  No, I mean really look!  Most of us try not too look to closely.  It's uncomfortable.  Easier to look the other way.  After all, what can we do? We are just one person, right?   WRONG! Together we are many.  Not every one was called to the mission field in a 3rd world country .  We have our own mission field right here in America, our own backyard.  My goal with this blog is to bring to light the needs all around us.  We can do what God has called us to do one person at a time, one family at a time, we can right one wrong at a time.  Let's start a chain reaction of love! 

I'm asking you to look around your community and see the needs.  Decide what you can do and take action.  It could be as simple as visiting someone in a nursing home, reporting suspected abuse when your tendency is to "not get involved, it's none of my business".  Well darnit, it's God's business, so it's your business!  I'm asking you to pray fervently about it.  Ask God to show you what he wants you to do, to open your eyes to see where you can make a difference.  Because if we would get off our butts and take action, just do something, we can make a difference.  I hope you will think long and hard about what you can do. I hope you will continue reading this blog and be inspired.  I hope you will share it with as many people as you can.

The Call to Action God placed in my heart is to start a revolution to uncover places of darkness in our communities and bring them into the light.  Light overcomes darkness every time.  It must!  I hope you will be inspired to leave a comment about the needs in your community.  Let us know what you do to show love in your community, and what your call to action for the sake of others will be.  Let's be accountable to each other.  Take action this week and let us know about it!
 
You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature ; rather, serve one another in love. Galatians 5:13

Shine your light in the darkness.
God Bless You,
Celene Harrelson