Amy Barkman

Ripples of Energy

2011-11-16T15:52:00.001-05:00

I have a sign in my kitchen that says “I’m not weird. I’m gifted.” It was given to me by a friend, a very optimistic friend, and I look at it often, hoping it is true.

I, who made my worst grades in math and science, read quantum physics. Not real often but as often as I can make my mind work well enough. It all started during a drought in central Kentucky and I’d been praying for rain. I was at a yard sale and saw a 3rd grade science textbook. Thinking maybe it might be easier for me now that I was much older, I bought it. One of the first things it taught me was that all the water that was ever on the earth is still here. We are an ecosystem. No water molecules are lost. Water is recycled: steam, vapor, ice, back to water.

Wow! How had I missed that? That meant that I could be bathing in molecules of water that Jesus walked on, or was baptized in! Or drinking water that He changed into wine that eventually ended up being water again. It gave me faith to speak to water clouds and tell them to come to my area. And they did!

That little bit of information made me hungry to know more. Especially since a few years earlier, while I was alone floating on a raft on Green River, I experienced the Lord saying to me, “When you understand how the place where I live works, and how the place you live works, and how you and I can be in both places at the same time, you’ll begin to see miracles. And they won’t seem like miracles at all.”

Now you can understand why I look at my kitchen sign often.

Anyway, I began a treasure hunt among science facts that eventually led me to quantum physics. It’s important to be very grounded in the Word of God to read books on quantum physics because it’s understood and written about by many new age aficionados

That doesn’t make the facts less true; it just means we must always begin with the Word and see if the conclusions drawn match with what we KNOW to be Truth.

Yesterday, I was reading a book that described some wave functions and compared some things to a pebble being dropped in a pool and rippling out in all directions. Water again! And I know that Jesus is preparing and cleansing His Bride with the water of the Word. And I knew that the human body is approximately 2/3 water in makeup.

Suddenly I could see it. His Word, when dropped into and received in our hearts, starts waves of spiritual energy - faith - that ripples out in all directions to bring that Word to pass. Our wills, minds, emotions, bodies, and circumstances will change to conform to that Word. And, I believe, that energy can flood out to others in life changing ways as well.

So make waves! Start the ripples of energy! Drop the Word of God in your heart: read it, ponder it, speak it, expect it to be made flesh. And then watch Him work miracles.

And tell me and others about what happens!

“... Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.” Ephesians 5:25b - 27

Watching out for Whales

2011-10-25T16:54:00.002-04:00

While cleaning out file cabinets I found some of the humor columns I wrote for the local newspaper years ago. I think it was in the late '80's. One really made me laugh so I thought I'd share:

WATCHING OUT FOR WHALES AT LEAST TWICE A YEAR
In my own personal vision of heaven, I see the greatest mansion, heaped full of the biggest rewards, sitting on the highest pinnacle, nearest the heart of God. It is populated with church nursery workers, elementary Sunday School teachers, and children's ministers. Eventually each one is released from his or her straight jacket, able to stop babbling incoherently, and free to enjoy the surroundings.

Having learned from reading the story of Jonah, who got swallowed by a whale because he didn't go where God told him to go, I minister to children about twice a year. God seems to understand that's all I can handle because so far I have not had any whales come to gobble me up.

Recently I made on of my semi-annual "insurance against being whale food" endeavors.
Several churches in a nearby community held an all day youth gathering and I was to speak to four different groups for 40 minutes each. The first seminar was a piece of cake and I relaxed and prepared to enjoy the day.

Then I went to the room set aside for 10 - 12 year olds. After ten minutes I had them all seated on the tables. (You notice I wrote 'on' not 'at'.) Before I could start my presentation, a charming bright-eyed lad named Chris spoke out.

"What I want to know is this: We call God 'he' so he's a man, right? Now, what I want to know is, who does he have sex with?"

After explaining the difference between spirits and bodies, I headed back toward my subject. By then 25 minutes had passed. I sat a chair in the midst of us and they all correctly guessed that it was to remind us that Jesus was present. Then I asked how we knew that, when we couldn't see Him.

I was encouraged when Chris said, "I know he's here because I'm here."

"But HOW do you know?" I was delighted that Chris would be quoting from the Bible and proving my point for me.

He answered, very seriously, "Because when I got up this morning, Jesus put a gun to my head and said, 'Come on boy, We're going to that church thing.'"

When the session was nearly over, I said I thought there was something we needed to do before we dismissed. Chris nodded wisely and said, "Yes, I know. Pray ... for me."

Concluding that there was no one present who was adept at casting out demons, I fervently asked the Lord to keep us all out of trouble for the rest of the day, especially Chris, since everyone might not enjoy him as much as God and I did.

At lunch there was much discussion about how to improve the afternoon sessions. Some of Chris' peers suggested hanging him by his feet on a tree at the far side of an empty field. I could tell by the gleam in the eyes of some of the adults in charge that they thought it was a case of "out of the mouths of babes" and I quickly mentioned that often great saints hide for many years behind a facade of youthful folly.

When I left before the evening session, Chris came running up, threw his arms around me and said, "I'm going to miss you." I was deeply touched and flattered until on the drive home it occurred to me that he may have been genuinely afraid for his life without me around to defend him.

What is funny is that now, over 20 years later, one of my greatest joys is that in the last year, we have children in my church and I do a children's message each Sunday. And I'm excited about the "Fun To Be One Club" book series, which are for mid-grade children. I'd forgotten about Chris; I just might have to write him in as a character in one of the books. He would be in his thirties now. And I now pastor a church in that county. I can't remember if I changed his name back then - to protect the guilty. Who knows? He could be a pastor in that same community. Wherever he is I pray for him and all the honest and exuberant children like him, no matter what age they are. I hope he and they and I all escape the whales.

Book Contest

2011-09-30T08:00:00.001-04:00

Board to Death: A Trio of Mysteries in the Dangerous Games Series releases today. My “Victim” is the first story in the book, followed by Debbie Roome’s "Mind Games", and Tracy Ruckman’s “Sentenced.” This book was so much fun to write. I’ve written several fiction books but this is the first time I had a hint of what God must feel like. I created these characters and then they proceeded to take over their own lives and surprise me! I hope you check it out and let me know if they surprised you too.

We're having a fun contest to celebrate, and will be giving away 8 digital copies of Board to Death.

To enter the contest, just leave a comment telling us what your favorite board game is, and why. If it's not a widely-known game, tell us a little about it. Then, be sure to leave your e-mail address so we'll know how to get in touch with you if you're a winner.

Two from each blog will win, and you can enter once at each site. You'll get one extra entry for each method you use to help promote the book - you can blog about it, tweet about it, or post it on Facebook. Just be sure to leave another comment with a link to your post to get the extra entries. Your comments/entries must be posted by Saturday, October 1, 11:59 p.m.

Thanks for helping spread the word about our fun book.

Here are the sites where you can enter:

Debbie Roome
Tracy Ruckman
Write Integrity Press

and my website here.

Here's book blurb and the video trailer is below.

Baby Boomers Polly Nichols, Lindsay Wilson, and Gretchen Anderson may live worlds apart, but they have one common hobby – a penchant for board games.

Polly’s serene Kentucky campground turns sinister when the manager is a VICTIM of murder.

In New Zealand, Lindsay’s life is turned upside down when MIND GAMES and evidence drag her into a murder case - as a suspect.

At the Kettle’s On Campground in Georgia, Gretchen matches wits with a murderous wordsmith intent on winning the latest game of SENTENCED.

You’ll love the games, the characters, and the stories – and we promise, you won’t be BOARD to Death!

To our readers: Our characters are Christians, just as the authors are who created them, so their lives and their stories reflect this viewpoint. We hope you enjoy our fun and unique stories.

As Little Children

2011-09-27T13:47:00.003-04:00

Today I was asked by my District Superintendent about the state of my soul. The only thing I could think of is that my soul right now feels like a little child at several Christmases all rolled into one. Every area of my life is bearing fruit of dreams given over to the Lord and thought gone forever. But Jesus is the resurrection and the life.

My “Everyday Spiritual Warfare” book is endorsed by some of my favorite internationally known ministers and writers, published and available on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com and I’m having a book signing for that in November. It will also be for sale at an event I’m directing for the Lincoln County Arts Center in December “Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas.” I’ve written a skit for that too - another praise report.

I have two more books out in the next 3 weeks. Well, 1 and 1/3. My novella “Victim” is a third of the Christian Murder Mystery trilogy “Board to Death” with Tracy Ruckman and Debbie Roome, and is already available by Kindle and will soon be available in hard copy through the online markets too.

Then by October 15, “Which Witch?” a mid-grade Christian fiction about Christian kids fighting witchcraft in the classroom, will be out. And the Fun To Be One Club - which has had many deaths and resurrections since 1979, with all ages and all races, comes back to life in “Which Witch?” and there will be an online FTBO Club site for both kids and adults to join in an affirmation of our oneness in the Spirit, along some fun and interaction. The survey readers are boys and girls from fourth through eighth grade and their responses have brought tears of joy to my eyes.

Three new members joined Mortonsville United Methodist Church last Sunday - and that makes six within less than 5 months. Amazing - in our little church which doesn’t even have a parking lot! Just a whole lot of loving people. And since last January I’ve had the privilege of needing to have a children’s message each Sunday when for years we didn’t have any children. (By the way, I found out that the adults like that message as much if not more than the grown up ones :-).

Saturday October 1, is Voice of Joy’s annual women’s retreat “A Day in Narnia.” Speakers will be two of my daughters, Ginny Smith and Beth Marlowe, one of my granddaughters, Maggie Tirey, and me. Narnia and family and loved ones attending! How good can it get?

Jesus 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
Hmm. Could it be that I feel like a child at Christmas now because somewhere along the way, I changed and became like an obedient child, gave up my dreams, and wanted only His will?

I did. And He is giving me back all the desires of my heart, purged of wrong motives and filled with humility and pure joy.

Happy Texting!

2011-08-23T23:40:00.000-04:00

Now I know why James said that we should say "if it's the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that" (James 4:15). How many times have I foolishly said that I WILL write this blog regularly?

Okay, I've learned my lesson. I'm not going to say that anymore. It's been a month and a half since I've written a blog. BUT God's will for me for that time was that I completely revise a book I'd written, "Everyday Spiritual Warfare" which will be available for sale on Amazon in a few weeks. AND He helped me write a novella that a different publisher requested. I just finished that tonight.

But today while I was driving, I had a thought - not enough for a book or even a sermon, but just enough of a thought for a blog.

I realized that God used to send His Word to His people through others who spoke it or wrote it down, just like we humans used to have to write notes or letters to people in other places, or send messengers or both.

Later, God sent Jesus and then the Holy Spirit to communicate directly to us. Just like we eventually got telephones and could speak directly to people.

After home or office telephones we got cell phones where we could speak directly to any people anywhere, from anywhere - just like God speaks through His Body when He send us out to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom.

Then the cell phones added texting. Hmm. It's like we have gone back to writing notes instead of talking, but still it's very immediate and personal.

And that's like the Bible. The Scriptures are God's texts to us. Immediate and Personal if we'll read them. Hmm again! They are called texts - "the original words of something written or printed, not a paraphrase..."

So from now on you can think of your Bible as God texting you - open up and read so He can make it immediate and personal!

Happy texting.

"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." II Timothy 3:16,17

Mercy and Judgment

2011-07-04T15:23:00.002-04:00

I want to make two announcements before I get into today's message. Any day now the "address" for this blog will change. It will be www.amybarkman.com and will open to the blog as well as contain all the Voice of Joy Ministry and other pages - accessed by clicking on the name of the folder at the top of the blog page. Also sometime in August my husband will begin video recording "Parlour Talk" which will be me discussing the Word from my parlour - picture is above - where I spend time alone with Jesus as well as with others in His Presence. Please pray for that venture. Gary says the Lord told him to do it so I'm going to cooperate!

Now to the blog for today.

Yesterday was the Sunday before Independence Day. I signed up nearly a month ago for my church to be part of a program entitled Call2Fall which asked for commitments from individuals and churches to spend at least 5 minutes on their knees Sunday, July 3, in personal repentance and prayer for our nation. Over a million signed up - and since that included churches which could have populations of hundreds or thousands, no telling how many people knelt to intercede for our nation. I truly expect to see revival sweep the land as a result of this effort.

I began several weeks ago talking about repentance and revival from the pulpit. I handed out two sheets of questions to ask ourselves and let God's Spirit show us where repentance and purging is needed.(If you'd like copies of them, e-mail and ask and I'll attach them and send to you.) On July 3, seven people in Mortonsville United Methodist Church led us in prayers for:
Repentance & Revival among Christians
God's Power poured forth in and through the Body of Christ
Evangelism & Lost Souls
Respect for God's Word in the Church and Nation
Standards of Morality in the Church and Nation
Godly Government
Economy of the Church and Nation

After the prayers, I called for those who could to come forward and kneel to pray. I purposefully went to kneel at the first pew and did not look to see who did or did not come because I didn't want to be tempted to judge those who didn't. Later on I said to Gary "I don't want to know who did, but were there many who came to kneel and pray?" He said that with the exception of himself (in a wheelchair) and two other people for whom it is impossible to physically kneel, everyone in the church went up to bow in humility before the Lord. It's moments like that which make a pastor's heart beat quickly with joy.

I led in prayer also and prayed something that has never come out of my mouth before. I can only believe that it was the Lord leading me to pray that way. I've always been very much a believer in "Mercy rejoiceth against (or over) judgment" James 2:13. I love knowing that God loves to show mercy instead of judgment. My favorite beatitude is "Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy." Matthew 5:7. Knowing that I need lots of mercy, I have been quick to show mercy to others! But Sunday morning I prayed a little differently.
"Father we hold up those in this nation that are the enemies of Your standards of morality, enemies of Your Word, enemies of the freedom on which this country was founded, enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ. For those who are Your enemies in ignorance we ask for Your mercy and that You send Your light to shine Truth into their hearts, and prepare their hearts to receive truth. Upon those who know what they are doing, who have chosen to be the enemies of You and Your people, enemies of Truth and Freedom, we ask You to bring judgment."

Frankly, I was in a state of shock the rest of the day. I've never ever asked for judgment to come to anybody, even those who have hurt me or my family.
But when I think of those Christian settlers who came to this land so they could have the freedom to worship in whatever way they chose - and when I hear that Christianity is the only faith that is being persecuted and mocked and even forbidden in places- I hurt. When I think of all those who gave their lives to protect our Constitution which is based on God's Law, and how often judges today rule against that Constitution, how often I hear it said that our Constitution is outdated - I hurt. And if I hurt, I know that the Heart of our Lord hurts first.

Please pray for mercy for all people but for those who see no need of mercy, those who are purposefully the enemies of God and His Word and His Law, pray that judgment comes to hinder their influence so that JESUS IS LORD over our country.
God bless you, and God bless America!!!

Human

2011-06-10T14:23:00.003-04:00

"Life" in a fallen world happened to me big time since I wrote last. I got an infection, went to the Drs office twice, ended up in bed all this week, and didn't get to go to Annual Conference or my castle. :-(
I felt stressed about not being able to go, and then guilty that I didn't spend all my time fighting with the Word. Instead, after a brief prayer and devotional session each day, I watched children's movies on dvd and read cozy mysteries. In my dreams I continued to plan the Narnia retreat and invented a computer program (a joke to anyone who knows my technical ineptness) but it was only while I slept that I was useful in any way.
I apologized to the Lord for not being more proactive in fighting sickness, but He didn't seem to be as upset with me as I was.
He seemed to recognize that I am human.
Human - what a study in contrasts a human is. Even the worst of us have some kindness at times, and even the best of us can be terribly self-centered.
And when you add the New Creation nature from Jesus Christ to the mixed up fallen personality, you really have an interesting specimen.
Those of us who have been born again by His Spirit are being transformed into His image. But it is definitely a process!
I KNOW without a shadow of a doubt that the Word of God drives out sickness and disease. I know that if I keep my eyes on Jesus I am changed into His image - and He was not ever sick until the day He took your sickness and mine into Himself on the cross.
And yet I put aside my Bible and picked up the mystery and the dvd control. Why?
Because it was just easier, that's why. It took no mental or physical energy. I did pray, "Lord You are the healer. I know the end of the story but You'll have to get me from here to there cause I can't. I'm too tired."
"Too tired." He brought those words back to my mind today. And reminded me that sometimes I do "good deeds" beyond what He tells me to do. And then He forced me to question my own motives.
Hmmm.
Well, there is nobody else to do them. How do you know if you leap in and don't give somebody else a chance to do them? Well, I made a commitment. And what if you can't fulfill that commitment? Uh, then I would have failed. So?
Then He brought to my mind a scene from years ago. My parents were avid square dancers and they introduced square dancing to the Frankfort Country Club back in the early 1950's. I loved watching them and even got to go to a dance with Daddy once when my mother was too busy working on her Master's Degree.
In the early '90's it was advertised that there would be square dancing lessons here in our community. I asked my husband if we could go and take them.
Gary: No
Me: Why?
Gary: I don't know how to square dance.
Me: That's why we would take lessons.
Gary: But I might make a fool of myself.
Me: So?
Gary: Somebody might laugh at me.
Me: So?
Gary: Then I'd have to shoot them.
We didn't take square dancing and I've always been sorry. Now I don't know if Gary just didn't want to do it or if he really was hindered by pride.
Pride, the original sin - of the devil and of humans.
Someone mentioned humility on FaceBook today. I commented. "Just when we think we have achieved humility, we get proud of ourselves for being humble. Sigh!"
The Lord didn't cause my sickness and infection - they are part of living in a fallen world. But I want to thank Him for using this time to remind me that I am not yet perfected and need to take time to rest and become like a child, trusting Him to bring me to perfection and help me relax during the process.
He reminded me of an incident in 1980. I was at a time of great frustration and ready to quit some things that I knew He called me to do - because I couldn't control several situations. The KJV version of Galatians 2:24 came to my mind "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Some other versions say "live by faith in the Son of God" but this one said "live by the faith of the Son of God." When I read it, I had a picture come into my mind of myself lying flat on a raft and I couldn't see where I was going but Jesus was right behind me and the breath of His Spirit was blowing my raft to the destination He chose and could see. All I had to do was rest in Him.
May you live by His faith. And don't forget to play.
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time: casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. I Peter 5:6,7

More Adventures in the Kingdom

2011-06-03T17:37:00.001-04:00

I mentioned in my last post that I'm planning a workshop on stress management, "Peace! Be Still." And I'm looking forward to sharing what I learned as I earned certification in that subject through the American Association of Christian Counselors. The date and place are still to be determined. I believe this subject affects every person because the biggest cause of stress is....
money or the lack thereof? No. Family relationships? No. Career problems? No? The biggest cause of stress is.....................Life!!! And we all have to deal with that.

I've also got some personal adventures coming up in the next few months - next week I'm going to the Kentucky Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. And I was thrilled to find that the most reasonably priced hotel listed was the Drawbridge Inn - which looks like a castle. When I traveled for the Commonwealth of KY I stayed there when duties took me to that area. It made me feel like a princess - to stay in a "castle." My oldest daughter Ginny and I went to England for three weeks in 1999 and toured lots of castles. When my wonderful husband picked me up at the airport on my return, he told me that he had reserved a room at the Drawbridge Inn for the night "to make the homecoming from England not such a drastic change."

Then in July I am going to another UM event, the Aldersgate Renewal Ministries Conference in Dayton, Ohio. I'm riding up there with a good friend who is a pastor in Florida who had me come and do a workshop at her church several years ago - in the Florida Keys. I commented at the time "It's tough work but somebody has to do it!" :-)

Shortly after I made those arrangements Ginny called about her first grandson's birthday - my first great-grandchild. So I will be flying out from Dayton to Utah to celebrate with the newest generation in our family!!!

Then the next big adventure, that I know about, will happen on Saturday October 1, 2011 at Faith Fellowship Church here in Danville. It is Voice of Joy's annual women's retreat and this year's theme will be "A Day in Narnia." YAY! Talk about adventures!!! I was in my 20's when I discovered C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia. And by now I have read all seven books at least 12 times each - I lost count somewhere along the way but know several of my favorites have been read 14 or 15 times. Two of my daughters have already agreed to share their insights into at least one of the books that influenced their early years. I can't wait!!! I've already started collecting decorations - things like...but then if I told you and you decide to come, they wouldn't be a surprise!!! In Narnia you don't just feel like a princess, you discover that you are a queen, under the King of Kings of course!!!

I truly hope that all my brothers and sisters in the Kingdom have wonderful adventures like I do, even in the midst of "Life!"

"In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." Proverbs 3:6

Life With Jesus

2011-06-01T15:21:00.003-04:00

Wow - what a time I've had the past few weeks!!! I'm not even going to apologize for missing two weeks of writing this blog. When you are where Jesus is and has called you to be there with Him, life is exciting.

Friday May 20th I attended Messiah Ministries' Fountain Prayer and Praise service in Lexington which included a Blessing Ceremony for newlyweds David and Linda Moore and then I hosted a reception afterwards with the help of my good friend Jo Clem. On Saturday May 21, I drove to Union College and hosted an informal get-together for the school I graduated from - Appalachian Local Pastor's School. Sunday I preached at church and Monday I packed.

On Tuesday May 24, my husband Gary and I headed out to Georgia to visit a dear friend Tracy Ruckman and her husband Tim. We had a wonderful, blessed afternoon, evening, and Wednesday til after lunch with them. Then we headed to Pigeon Forge, TN where we spent two nights. Gary shopped and I completed my course - by DVD - on Stress Management Coaching through the American Association of Christian Counselors.

Friday we drove on over to Gatlinburg and settled in for four days. Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday we attended the Gaither Family Fest where laughter and worship are continually dancing around the throne of Love. We go every Memorial Day weekend and hope we never have to miss it. But it's not for worship wimps. There is usually a 4 hour service on Friday night, 2 hours Saturday and Sunday mornings, and 3 1/2 hours Saturday and Sunday nights! One minute someone may tell a joke and the next you may be standing with 7,000 other Christians singing the Halleluiah chorus. Shortly after you sit down a Bluegrass group complete with banjos and wash tubs may entertain you, and right after that you might enjoy a powerful offering of Italian opera, followed by being led in Because He Lives by the composers.

I can't say enough about the awesome experience of the Gaither Family Fest. For someone like me who formed the "Fun To Be One Club" back in the '70's, to be in a group that large made up of Baptists, Catholics, Methodists, Episcopalians, Pentecostals, 7th Day Adventists, Lutherans, Independents, Charismatics, and every other 'brand' of Christians you can name, all worshipping the King of Kings together, is pure heaven. Well, yeah, guess it's just like that, huh?

Monday we stayed around Gatlinburg - I slept til 1 p.m. and Gary slept til 3!!! Our first year there for Family Fest we headed home on Memorial Day but since it took 5 1/2 hours of being in bumper to bumper traffic to go the distance that usually takes 30 minutes, we agreed we would never do that again but would wait til Tuesday.

Tuesday we headed home at 11 a.m. but since there are so many wonderful places in that 30 minute drive to Interstate 40, like the Christian Book Discount Warehouse, the Tool Discount Warehouse, a Christmas decoration warehouse, a china and doll outlet - well, we finally reached the interstate around 5. Yes, it took 30 minutes longer than the drive on Memorial Day but we spent most of it having fun! Then of course we had to stop at the Lake City Cracker Barrel for supper. I kept asking Gary, "Do we really have to go home?" But he kept saying, "Yes." So here we are.

Now that I'm here I'm not really sad. I'm looking forward to being back in the pulpit at church. I'm planning a workshop "Peace! Be Still" on stress management - God's way. And I'm working on the Woman's Retreat which will be "A Day in Narnia." How fun is that!?! The speakers this year will be my daughters and me. I'm really excited about it.

Life with Jesus is so wonderful. Oh, yeah, that Monday that we hung around Gatlinburg, we stopped into a gallery and I bought a painting. It is already hanging in my parlor where I have my quiet time and meet with friends for prayer counseling with the Lord. It's a picture of Jesus holding hands and forming a circle with a group of children and they are dancing. He is smiling as are the children and the adults watching them.

When I look at it I see us - you and me and all who love Him. And I think of the song "Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will go strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace."

I hope you are enjoying life with Jesus - even if you sometimes have to sleep 12 to 14 hours after the dance!

"Lord, show me the path of life; In Your Presence is fullness of Joy." Psalm 16:11

Greater Things

2011-05-14T13:14:00.001-04:00

Today I've been meditating on the promises of Jesus to the believer. To you and to me. Last week I mentioned that He promised in John 14:12 that those who believe in Him will do even greater things than He did. Do you believe that?

Take a minute and really think about it. Do you believe that you will do all the things Jesus did and even greater things?

Did Jesus exaggerate? Was it a wrong translation? Or could it be possible that we aren't believing the way He meant when He made the promise?

Well, I KNOW Jesus didn't exaggerate. He IS Truth.

Wrong translation? One of the Bible de-powering things I was taught was that even if scripture was originally what God said, the translators messed it up and so you couldn't believe it the way it came to us. I bought that - sort of. But I just couldn't believe that the God of all Creation would allow Jesus' words to be mistranslated. So I believed the Words in Red!!!

Those two questions out of the way, that leaves us as the reason we aren't doing the things Jesus did and greater.

"But I have faith!" "I believe." Do we?

The definition of faith is "trust in God's Word and reliance on His Nature." To truly believe in Jesus means to trust that His Word is true and to rely on His goodness. When I was a child I was taught that the Bible is full of stories that contain wisdom but that you can't believe it literally. I'll never forget when God sent someone who taught me that the Bible contains the Living Word of the Living God and that, yes, I can believe and take it literally - even the words not in red. "Joy unspeakable and full of glory"!!! I Peter 1:8

His Word is forever settled in heaven. But He needs us to believe and receive it on earth. That's why He told us to pray "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Matthew 6:10.

Shortly after Jesus said the believer would do greater things than He did, He said, "He that has my commandments and keeps them, that is who loves me, and he that loves me shall be loved by my Father and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." John 14:21.

Aha! To trust in and rely on Him means that we believe Him and keep His commandments. And what are His commandments? The apostle John says that we have anything we ask of God if we keep His commandments which are: believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ (Okay, got that!) and love one another, as he gave us commandment. (Uh-Oh!) I John 3:22,23

Jesus taught in Mark 11: 24-26 that whatever we pray, believe we receive and we will have them and then He says "And when you stand praying, forgive if you have anything against anybody."Hmm. Could it be that we are not seeing ourselves do the things Jesus did, much less the greater things, because we are not walking in love, not forgiving those who wrong us?

He said when we keep His commandments, He will manifest Himself to us. That means He will show Himself to us, His love and power will pour through us. But that can't happen if we are clogged up with resentments, irritations, and unforgiveness.

I hope you and I both (and the rest who read this) will be quick to forgive, quick to be merciful, quick to obey His voice to let Him pour out His blessings to others through us.

And as we do, I believe we are going to begin to see those greater things happen all around us.

Understanding Science

2011-05-08T00:49:00.000-04:00

I just returned from several days in my favorite place - Aldersgate Camp and Retreat Center. I used to go every other month but had not been since last October. When I walked in "my" cottage Monday afternoon, I burst into tears and realized that I had been homesick and didn't even know it.

There is always a sheet of paper lying on the table that says "Welcome home, Amy Barkman." And I always feel like I've come home. Why? The people I love, my husband, my children, my best friends don't live there. Why would that be home to me? Because there I spend days alone with the Lord. No sounds or distractions of any kind draw my attention from Him. Peace, perfect peace with my Creator, Redeemer, Counselor and Teacher.
This time, besides reading my Bible and praying and relaxing, I studied.
I watched some dvd's with Christian speakers who have studied Quantum Physics. Yes!!!
Wierd? Yes!!! Just like me.

I realized about twenty years ago that I was not normal. I had a passion to study science - which was NOT my best subject back in school. But I began to see that the more I understood science, the more effective my prayers were. It was only about 15 years ago that I started on Quantum Physics. I was/am driven to discover how the universe works.

My desire to understand began as a seed planted in August of 1980 when I was floating on a raft on the Green River in Kentucky. I heard, not an audible voice, but an inner voice that I recognized as God's. He said, "When you understand how the place I live in works and how the place you live in works, and how you and I can both be in both places at the same time, you will start to see miracles happen and they won't seem like miracles at all.

The first thing I realized was that Ephesians teaches that we are seated "together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." That puts me in the place where He is. And "Christ in me, the hope of Glory" puts Him in the place where I am. That is a wonderful thing to know but it didn't cause me to see miracles happen.

Then one day about ten years later I felt the Lord leading me to buy a fourth grade science book at a yard sale for twenty five cents. I discovered that every drop of water that was here in the earth at creation is still here. It just recycles itself. The water we used to brush our teeth could be the very molecules that Jesus walked on! Knowing that the water is all here and doesn't go away helped me pray for it to come and pour down on the land in my area during droughts. I saw results and I developed a desire to understand more science.

I found a scriptural basis for my desire in Daniel 1:4. It was during the time that the Jews were taken into captivity in Babylon. The King told his servant to choose some of the children of Israel to bring to the Palace so they might be taught the language and learning of the Chaldeans.
The description was that the children would be those "in whom there was no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in all knowledge, and understanding science..." Among these chosen ones were Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednigo.

Did you catch the implication there? These four men worshipped the God of Israel and "understood science." Daniel was thrown into a den of lions and was not harmed. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednigo were bound and thrown into a furnace of fire that was heated seven times stronger than usual. And they came out unharmed "not a hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor had the smell of fire passed on them". There were other people who worshipped the one true God, but were killed for their faith. I believe that "understanding science" was what helped these servants of God overcome the plots to destroy them. They knew that the elements and all the physical universe were created by God, and that they who were created in His image had authority over the elements and all creation.

Jesus walked on water, changed water into wine, walked through angry crowds unseen, restored withered arms, drove away leprosy and other diseases. He understood His authority over the physical realm. He understood science. And He said that Believers would do the things He did AND GREATER THINGS.

People have thought for years that science and scripture disagree but I don't believe that. Science often explains to me what the Bible means when it describes certain things. I believe that God wants us to understand science so we, the Church, will begin to walk in our calling to demonstrate His love and power in the world around us and advance His Kingdom.

I hope you will join me in being abnormal. Ask the Lord to help us - all of us in His Body in the earth - learn how things work so He can use us to get miracles to people and do greater works than He did when He walked in Galilee. I know this much - the way the heavenly realm works and the way this world works are by Words. I'm still learning and looking forward to the time I see miracles as the norm. Aren't you?

Daniel 1:4; 3:14 - 27;6:16-23 John 14:12 Ephesians 1:17 - 2:7 Colossians 1:27 John 1:1-3
Hebrews 1:1-3

Royal Wedding

2011-04-29T02:07:00.002-04:00

I'm writing this a few hours before the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in London, England. Usually the only royal family events I read about are ones that happened centuries ago, but for some reason I googled the royal wedding and read some of what was written.

I clicked on the "Music Selections" and was interested to see all the music the couple chose for their big event. What fascinated me the most was their hymn selection. The article said that the three hymns are the couple's favorites. They are "Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer", "Jerusalem", and my own favorite "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling." I am impressed.

"Guide Me" is a plea for guidance and includes the words, "Bread of heaven, feed me til' I want no more." And "Jerusalem" is based on a poem by William Blake which has always fascinated me. There is a legend that Joseph of Arimathea was a relative of Jesus' who took Him on a trip to England during those years between 12 and 30 about which scripture is silent.
"And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?"
I like to think it was true because I have a love for England and a passion for that nation to be, like our own, an example of God's Love and Wisdom.

Anyone who has the hymn "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" as one of their favorites, especially anyone who would choose this song for a ceremony celebrating their own love, immediately commands my interest.

The words of the hymn were written by Charles Wesley in the eighteenth century. They are timeless words of adoration and supplication. Read them aloud. Read them as a prayer to our God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

1. Love divine, all loves excelling, joy of heaven, to earth come down;
fix in us thy humble dwelling; all thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus thou art all compassion, pure, unbounded love thou art;
visit us with thy salvation; enter every trembling heart.

2. Breathe, O breathe thy loving Spirit into every troubled breast!
Let us all in thee inherit; let us find that second rest.
Take away our bent to sinning; Alpha and Omega be;
end of faith, as its beginning, set our hearts at liberty.

3. Come, Almighty to deliver, let us all thy life receive;
suddenly return and never, never more thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing, serve thee as thy hosts above,
pray and praise thee without ceasing, glory in thy perfect love.

4. Finish, then, thy new creation; pure and spotless let us be.
Let us see thy great salvation perfectly restored in thee;
changed from glory into glory, till in heaven we take our place,
till we cast our crowns before thee, lost in wonder, love, and praise.

I love this hymn for many reasons - but one reason is that it is inclusive. The first verse defines our salvation. In the other verses our sanctification process is described and desired. Commitment is made. Expectation is expressed. And did you notice the last line? This young couple actually have crowns here and now. I pray they truly are able to cast those crowns before Him here and now and that He can use them to further His Kingdom in these days where there is so much war against His Kingdom.

I surprised myself by clicking on the "Leave a message for the Bride and Groom" button. I told them I pray for God to bless them and their calling to leadership. I ask you to pray for them also. And pray for their nation, like our own, to be turned back to the Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier and Deliverer.

Pray that God uses them and ourselves to prepare His people for the eternal Royal Wedding with Jesus Christ and His Bride.

Let us be glad and rejoice and give honour to Him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come and His wife hath made herself ready. Revelation 19:7

SPRING FORTH

2011-04-21T17:07:00.001-04:00

Spring is a beautiful time of the year - new life "spring"ing up all over the place. I love perennials, the flowers that you plant once and they spring up again year after year. You know they are going to be there and it's exciting to see the first green signs of them pushing through the ground. They are dependable.
I was embarrassed today when I prepared for my dear friend and website updater, Tracy Ruckman, needed changes to the site. I read there that I have a weekly blog. Hmmm, since my last blog was posted on October 14, it has been six months and one week since I wrote a blog. And it was over two months before that the previous one was written. I have done, according to my FBI agent Daddy, the worst sin of all. I lied. I have not kept my word and written a weekly blog. Unlike the perennial flowers, I have not been dependable.
Now I have confessed my sin and been forgiven and hopefully will allow myself to be cleansed of the unrighteousness that caused it. I John 1:9 is my favorite scripture, probably from familiarity of usage! Hopefully you will see my blogs springing forth on a weekly basis from now on.
In a few days we will celebrate the springing forth of Jesus Christ from the grave. Halleluia! He IS alive! And because He is alive, those of us who believe and accept His life are also alive with eternal life.
Yes, there are times when we don't see Him, and times we don't see evidence of our own new life. But He's there and so is the New Creation nature that is the true us. And how exciting when we see Eternal Life pushing through the ground of earthly situations!
One of my favorite scenes in scripture is that of Mary Magdalene at the tomb on that third day after Jesus entered into His Passion. She was weeping because even Jesus' dead body was not in evidence. Nothing was there in that empty tomb on which to pour out her grief. Where was the One she loved so much? I find it interesting, when I read that passage in John 20: 1-18 that two angels were seated where Jesus' body had laid, and they spoke to her, yet she didn't answer them or even show surprise that angels were speaking to her. Then Jesus asked, as they had, why she was crying. He also asked who she was looking for.
She didn't recognize the One she was looking for but thought he was the gardener, and she begged him to tell her where the body was so she could get it back. Then Jesus said something else. He said her name. Just that, "Mary."
And then she knew Him. Recognition sprang forth into her heart. And joy sprang forth into every part of her being. Jesus made her the first post resurrection evangelist by sending her to tell others that He is alive and going to the Father God.
It's like that with us too. We can search among the tombs of doctrines and speculations. We can even believe the historical facts of an empty tomb. But it is when we are able to hear His voice calling our name that true recognition, true faith in the risen Christ, fills us with joy. And when we are able to hear His voice, we can truly be sent by Him with the good news of Eternal Life to all who will hear and receive.
Christianity was born the day Jesus rose from the dead, the day He sprang forth from the ground and manifested Life in all it's Glory. And true Christianity is not a religion but is always a relationship with the living Christ, Jesus the Savior and the Redeemer.
May His Life spring forth in you and in all your circumstances! And may you plant truth in the hearts of those around you and watch His Life spring forth in and for them.
For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Colossians 3:3,4

Butterflies Are Free

2010-10-14T20:14:00.001-04:00

If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed! John 8:36
The annual Women’s Retreat hosted by Voice of Joy Ministries was held in September and it was one of my favorites. The theme was Butterflies. We looked at the Christian life as compared to the stages of the life of a Butterfly.

Egg:
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides forever. I Peter 1:23
We are born again by the Word of God, and are like the tiny egg planted on a leaf. They say if you look closely you can see inside the egg to what is growing there. A butterfly? Not yet – what you can see is a tiny worm like thing. When we are first born again, we don’t look like Jesus Christ in whose image we are destined to become. But the process has begun!

Caterpillar:
Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Matt. 4:4
When the egg hatches, a little caterpillar emerges. A very hungry little caterpillar! He eats and eats and eats until he grows to be a big caterpillar. If we are smart, the next stage in our Christian life drives us to hunger for the Word of God. I remember when I first got a revelation that the Word of God was a living thing. I devoured it – read it through, the whole thing – in three days. Later I went back and had meals of the Word on a more regular basis. The Word of God causes us to grow, causes our minds to be transformed.

Chrysalis:
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Phil. 2:12,13
When the caterpillar is very fat, it forms a cocoon around itself and you can’t see the caterpillar any more. What is happening to it is done in secret. It is changing forms. It is that way with us. When the Word of God has transformed our minds, we are ready to allow the Lord to change us on the inside. He, through His Living Word and His Holy Spirit, works to bring us to increasingly higher levels of likeness to Himself…until we don’t look like our old self but like Him.

Butterfly:
…as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4
When the butterfly emerges, its wings are weak and floppy. Then it begins pumping blood into those wings until they are strong and able to fly. So it is with us. The Blood of Jesus strengthens us and cleanses us from all unrighteousness – continually. One of the first things a butterfly does is look for a mate so it can reproduce. And we too, when we are born again and transformed into His image, desire to share the good news about the new life available to every person because of God’s great mercy and love.

Be free!!!

The Blood

2010-08-05T22:14:00.002-04:00

I’ve been studying the Blood of Jesus a lot lately. My understanding has been a progression over decades that took a giant leap recently.
Years ago I knew that His Blood was poured out for us from the Cross of Calvary and then He took some of it and put it on the heavenly Mercy Seat so our sins are covered from the sight of God the Father. I was very grateful. I was glad that the deal between Father and Son included “whosoever will believe.” I had a picture of myself eternally at the lower left hand corner of heaven on my knees scrubbing the floor – but grateful that I was in.

But then I discovered that Jesus and the Father are one. So I had to at least mentally recognize that the Father Himself loved me (for some strange reason). Maybe the blood of Jesus did something more than just cover my sin?

After that I found my favorite scripture verse I John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” And then I realized from two verses earlier that it is His blood that does the cleansing. Hmm. The blood still at work for all these years? Literally doing a job? Cleansing away all unrighteousness from my soul when I see sin and confess it?

I’ve always said I don’t like the term ‘plead the blood’ because who are you pleading to? You don’t have to plead to God – He gave us the blood. You certainly don’t plead to the devil – he is overcome by it. They overcame him by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. Rev. 12:11
But just two weeks ago I found out that the word plead is used in a legal sense. When you go before a judge, he/she says “How do you plead? Guilty or not guilty?” We don’t want to plead guilty. We can’t honestly plead not guilty. But we can plead the Blood of Jesus. It paid the price for what we owe Eternal Justice. What a relief! So before the Judge of the Universe when it comes to sin, ours and others, we plead the Blood. And He smiles because that’s the way He planned it.

But we shouldn’t plead the blood over the schemes of the devil. We should apply the Blood to situations that need redemption. And we should draw a Blood line around anything that needs protecting from the enemy. The Blood of Jesus empowers us beyond what most of us can imagine.

And what I’ve seen recently is that the Blood of Jesus is closely related to the Glory of God. The Bible tells us that the soul life is in the blood.(Lev. 17:14) Jesus’ blood contained His perfect soul life, His will constantly submitted to His Father, His Mind consistantly attuned to the Word of God, His emotions continually brought into harmony with Truth. That soul life is now available to you and me.

The Glory of God is His Presence manifested in and through us. We are changed from glory to glory into His image as we look at Jesus. (II Cor. 3:18) One degree of being like Him to a greater degree of being like Him.

The Glory of God is ours because we chose the Blood of Jesus to give us new life and allow that Blood to cleanse our souls from everything that is not like Jesus.

The Life and the Glory. The Blood and the Presence. Transformation - by spiritual Blood transfusion - until we are the glorious Church, spotless, with no wrinkle or blemish, holy as He is holy. (Ephesians 5:27) Praise the Lord!

The Presence of The Person

2010-05-14T16:43:00.000-04:00

In 1967 as I sat in the choir loft of South Frankfort Presbyterian Church during the moment of meditation preceding the pastor’s morning prayer, I was mentally presenting my list of sins to the Lord and acknowledging what a horrible person I was. The next thing I knew, the church building and pastor and congregation had all disappeared and I was in the Presence of a Person. That Person was holy, pure, uncomfortably sacred. I was more aware than ever of my unholy, dirty self. And yet…

The Person said to me – not in audible words but in a communication that burned words into my heart that cannot be erased, “You and I do not see sin alike. You must learn to love and when you learn to love, those things you consider big, bad, sins will melt away as if they never existed.” The Person’s Being was absolute unconditional Love and what He conveyed to me was Love so huge and unthinkable, so intimate and overwhelming that I’d never even suspected that it could exist. Especially for me.

Then the church building and pastor and congregation slowly materialized into my consciousness and I didn’t know whether to be relieved or bereaved. I felt that The Person was so holy that if I had stayed in The Presence one more second I would have ceased to exist. And yet it was as though I had always been in The Presence or I would not have ever existed at all. And I knew that He loved everyone else in the same way He loved me. From that moment on, I couldn’t hate anyone.

I never quite knew how to tell anyone about the encounter because I knew that it wasn’t Jesus Himself but it didn’t seem like the Father on His throne either. HE just WAS.

It was twenty six years later in 1993 that I was reading a book about the Holy Spirit and laid down the book and said “Holy Spirit, I don’t have any understanding of You except as a force that works through me and others in the Body of Christ.” Suddenly there was a flashback and I saw myself in The Presence of The Person and re-experienced the LOVE. Then I heard three words, again not with an audible voice but with words that burned themselves into my heart.
“That was me.”

The Holy Spirit IS a Person, not a blind force, not just the Power of God but the Person of God, the Person of Love, that is poured out into this space/time realm upon all flesh and within all that will allow Him. No wonder Jesus said that it was better for His own that He go away because if He didn’t go to the Father, He couldn’t send the Holy Spirit. (John 16:7)

Whenever I hear the Holy Spirit referred to as “it” I want to cry. He is not an IT but a PERSON, actually the only part of God we have ever really experienced. He is the one who shows us Jesus and ministers Father Love to us. He is the Intimacy Link to the Godhead. And He never exalts Himself; He exalts Jesus.

Jesus said, “When he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth; for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak; and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father has are mine; therefore I said that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you.” John 16:13-15

My prayer is that every one of us experience more intimately the Holy Spirit, the Presence of The Person.

One Adventure At a Time

2010-04-16T01:39:00.003-04:00

Last weekend we had a visitor. Victoria Suzanne Smith, age three, came to spend the night with her Grammy and Grampy for the first time. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Would she cry for her parents who were celebrating their wedding anniversary in Nashville? Would she get bored with no cousins around to play with?
Tori informed me shortly after her arrival that she likes adventures. The first adventure began when Grampy gave her a $10 roll of quarters to spend as she liked. Then Grammy took her to the library where we had lots of adventures with books and puzzles. Afterwards we went to Baskin Robbins where Tori bought herself and Grammy some ice cream.
Later we went for a walk, not a long one. Grampy went rolling in his wheelchair and let Tori walk and hold the leash for his dog Grover. Grammy walked with them. Our goal was just to walk around the high school campus which is right across the street from our house. All went well until we got to the back near the parking garage for busses. Suddenly Grampy had no power in his wheelchair and there was a fairly steep hill in front of us in the last block before home.
Tori and Grover and Grammy walked back to the house and, leaving Grover inside, Grammy managed to back out Grampy’s fourwheeler scooter leaving only one chunk of the fender lost and the front door miraculously intact. When I was safely on the sidewalk I let Tori join me from the edge of the porch where I had sent her to stay safely away from me and the ‘monster’. Then Tori got on my lap and, rachet strap in hand, we drove back over the hill to where Grampy sat waiting. He attached the strap and we took off. We towed Grampy back to the house without further mishaps.
After Grampy’s chair was safely plugged in, Tori looked up at us beaming. “I liked that adventure,” she said. “Let’s do it again!”
We declined.
Jesus says we are to become as little children in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. During Tori’s visit I got a deeper glimpse of His meaning. I remembered back on the fun I used to have with her sister and older cousins. Children live in the ‘now’. They are not fretting over the past or worrying about the future. And when I am with them, neither do I. I become like them and live in the ‘now.’ And the ‘now’ is always interesting.
Children don’t wonder where their next meal is coming from. They don’t even think about their next meal until their stomachs demand one. They don’t worry about delays or changes in their plans; they just go with the next step that presents itself.
Children don’t have to be taught to ‘count it all joy’ when different tests come. They just enjoy the adventure, secure in the knowledge that those who are bigger than they will cause everything to work out okay.
I want to be like that. And I think our heavenly Father wants that for us…that no matter what happens on our walk we can rest in the knowledge that He can handle it and it will all turn out all right. And somewhere along the way we find quarters and ice cream and books and puzzles – fun stuff – because we are loved. We won't worry about tomorrow because we can relax and just take one adventure at a time.

But Jesus said, "Let the children come to me. Don't stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children.” Matthew 19:14 NLT

Present Risenness

2010-04-06T14:19:00.004-04:00

I loved Resurrection Day this year. I enjoyed church and then family get-together, visiting with friends. But I think what I enjoyed most was that night when I picked up Brennan Manning’s “Abba’s Child” and discovered that I had stopped in my reading exactly before the part on the “Present Risenness” of Jesus Christ. Wow! A God-incidence to pick that up on Easter. I was glad that I’d changed the traditional responses in the bulletin that morning to: Christ is risen. He is risen indeed! Christ is risen. He is risen in me!

There is nothing more exciting for a Christian than to get a revelation of His present risenness in us...those times when you find yourself doing something you know you wouldn’t choose to do but you do it anyway because it seems right – and later you find out that it was His Spirit within you ministering to one or more of His other beloved children.

Easter afternoon, Gary and I went by to pray for a good friend before his heart surgery on Monday. (He is doing fine, Praise the Lord!) and the friend introduced me to a lady I’d never met by telling this story:
He went to a “Christians in Government” group to hear a woman who had left her position in state government to go into the housing projects to minister on a regular basis. She had a passion for helping the poor – not by just giving them things but by helping them become all God created them to be. He liked everything the woman said because it matched his own thinking and he knew she would be a good person to head up a pilot project he had in mind.
He asked the person who invited her to speak at their meeting if they would invite the speaker to her house along with him and several other Christians. To God he said, “Okay, Lord, I think I’ve heard you saying “XYZ” (private message) to me. If that is you and not just my imagination, have that woman confirm it by saying it to me also."
When the time for the meeting at his friend’s home came, he got there a few minutes early and when the woman arrived, she spotted him and immediately came over and handed him an envelope. “God told me to give this to you,” she said. He put the envelope in his coat pocket. It was a wonderful meeting and at the end, the woman agreed to come back to work for state government and head up the pilot project.
When he went home, he pulled out the letter which began “ I have said to you “XYZ” and again I say to you “XYZ”.
I was the woman and after he finished, I went on to tell his guest the other part of the story. The night before the meeting I felt a strong leading to listen to the Lord on his behalf. “XYZ” came to me over and over, so finally I prayed and then obeyed. I felt silly. Here was this important man – a Commissioner – and I was writing him this long letter that opened with something that could have made him think I was crazy…if God had not said “XYZ” to him before. But I knew I had to leave it as it was.

What if I had let the fear of being wrong, the feeling of silliness, cause me to stifle the ministry of the Lord Jesus? There would probably have been no close thirty year friendship. Our pilot project was only for a year and we couldn’t get additional funding – but we did reach some people with life changing concepts. And at least one county in Kentucky is still holding meetings for government, church, and private programs to come together and share insights and help. Those things could have been missed if feelings were bigger than faith.

The Present Risenness of Christ, it’s the most exciting thing in the earth. I confessed to my congregation Easter Sunday morning that sometimes still I am tempted to put duct tape over Him who lives inside me. Sometimes I bind His hands. Oh, but when we don’t! When we let Him speak and give and love through us…that is Glory in all it’s meanings – honor, praise, manifestation of God in this physical realm.

…the mystery…which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:27
He is risen indeed.

FAITHFULNESS

2010-03-28T15:39:00.001-04:00

“This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope:
It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:21-23

I’ve thought so much about the Lord’s faithfulness lately that I’ve determined to let that part of HIM live in and through me. After all, all ministry – all true ministry – is His. It is He that moves in us to purify us and through us to reach out with love to others.

I’m writing this on Palm Sunday. The first message I ever preached in a church was on Palm Sunday and the title of my sermon was “The Cheers of the Children.” Each year since then, I’ve mentioned the concept of that first one in the current message. In Matthew 21: 1-17, we read the story of Jesus coming to Jerusalem and the crowd that lay their garments and branches from trees down on the path before him and cried out “Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” They were excited because of this healer and miracle worker. But something happened that changed everything. Jesus went into the temple.

When he was in the temple he cast out all the sellers and moneychangers. Uh Oh. That kind of thing was likely to make the religious rulers angry. Then the blind and lame came to Jesus there in the temple and He healed them. Uh Oh again.

Sure enough “When the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple and saying ‘Hosanna to the son of David’, they were sore displeased.”

Wait a minute. When this passage began there were “great multitudes” cheering for Jesus. What happened to them? Why, by the time the religious leaders were made angry, were there only the children left to cheer Jesus on?

If you and I had been part of that crowd on the road to Jerusalem, how would we have responded? Would we have left when He reached the city for fear of being thought a fanatic?
Would we have slipped away from the temple when Jesus began ridding it of the greedy and dishonest merchants? Would we have stepped into the shadows when Jesus started healing people right there in the domain of the religious establishment?

Or would we have become one of the children who praised Him no matter what was happening?

In the book of the prophet Hosea 2:19,20 there is a wonderful promise from God to us. “And I will betroth you unto myself forever. Yes, I will betroth you unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness and in mercies. I will even betroth you unto me in faithfulness…”

Wow, the One who is the same yesterday, today, and forever promised He would make us one with Him in faithfulness. No wonder that His mercies need to be renewed every morning as Jeremiah wrote in the book of Lamentations.
I’m going to take the opportunity of this celebration of Jesus’ triumphant entry into the Holy City to open myself further to the Lord in this area and ask Him to make me more fully one with Him in faithfulness.

Perhaps He will even do that when it comes to writing blogs . Have a wonderful and Holy Week! Have a wonderful and Holy Forever.

One At A Time

2010-02-12T20:47:00.003-05:00

I’ve been extremely busy for the past 3 months. So busy that my bedroom began to resemble the inside of a Dempster Dumpster. Clean clothes, dirty clothes, mail I had no time to peruse and decide whether to keep or toss, mail I need to throw away but should maybe look one last time, mail I want to keep but don’t know where, books I’ve finished reading, books I want to read, books I have no intention of reading, books I need to return to their owner, books I want to put in a prominent place to loan to someone else. The list goes on.
I’ve been saying for a month I’m going to clean it. But it’s easier to just stay out of the room or sit at my computer where my back is turned to the mess except what is on my desk, easier later to turn out the light and stumble over baskets of clothes as I make my way to bed.
Two days ago was the target date to begin cleaning the room but I stood in dismay surveying the chaos and praying “Lord, how am I going to do this?” Immediately my eyes fell on a book that needed to be taken to the parlor and put in the bookshelf there and the Lord spoke clearly to my heart, “One book at a time.” Relief flooded me and instead of waiting around to see if another book needed to go to my parlor I picked it up and went and put it away.
Not only has the principle worked as “one piece of clothing at a time” and “one paper at a time,” it’s flooding over to the rest of my life.
I was tempted to pass on some gossip and I heard “One word at a time,” and I shut my mouth. I was attacked by a fear and I heard “one thought at a time” and I quoted God’s Word of promise aloud. I wanted to do something that would help me but somebody else needed it more than I did, and I heard “One sacrifice at a time.”
I've seen that my soul, the souls of most of us, get like my bedroom, cluttered with unneccessary stuff, stuff we try to ignore, stuff that is good but just needs to be put in it's proper place.
I’m beginning to realize that “Give us this day our daily bread.” is more than just a request for provision; it’s a principle of life. I remember that song, “One day at a time, sweet Jesus. That’s all I’m asking of you.” I think the person who wrote that is farther on the journey than I am because for me it’s “One second at a time, sweet Jesus. That’s how much I always need you!”
And aren't we glad that He promised, "I will never leave you or forsake you." Hebrews 13:5

Sisters

2010-01-21T00:05:00.003-05:00

Yes, I'm finally posting again. It's been an amazing few months since October and I'll tell you about it some day. But today I want to post an article my oldest daughter wrote. It's about my three biological daughters and I may be prejudiced but I think it's a wonderful article and will be enjoyed by anyone, whether they are, or have, a sister or not!

The Awesome Bond of Sisters
By Virginia Smith

Having a sister is like having a best friend you can't get rid of. You know whatever you do, they'll still be there. --Amy Li

My middle sister and I fought like wildcats when we were growing up. One of my most vivid childhood memories is of being forcibly separated during an argument and banished to sit together on the living room couch with orders not to get up until we could get along. I huddled against one arm and resigned myself to living on that two-foot square cushion for the next eleven years, when I would turn eighteen and could get my own apartment. After an eternity, Mom entered the room to mediate. “Girls,” she said, “you are sisters. There will never be another person in the world more closely related to you than your sister. So you’d better learn to get along, because someday one of you might need a kidney.” Not, perhaps, the most convincing argument for reconciliation ever presented, but it worked. For the moment, anyway.

A woman has many relationships in her life, but the bond between sisters is unique. There is the biological link, but the connection goes beyond that. Sisters enjoy a shared past. They experienced many of the same events that molded their personalities, and therefore they understand one another in a way no one else can. They speak the same shorthand. If one of my sisters says, “I know! Let’s put on a show!” we all laugh, because we remember the first time one of us said that, and the resulting spectacle that has become family legend.

Sisters “get” each other without having to go into all the background. When I’ve had an argument with my husband, I can call my sisters and say, “He doesn’t want a puppy. I think I may divorce him.” My sisters understand my reaction immediately, because they remember witnessing our parents’ argument over the same subject. They can talk me down from the ledge, and away from the divorce attorneys. And they will do this even if I call them at three o’clock in the morning, with only a minimum amount of grumbling about the loss of sleep.
Psychologist Marcia Millman, author of The Perfect Sister, said during an interview, “I think sisters can help repair the injuries of childhood.” That’s certainly been true in my family. Whenever we get together, our husbands cover yawns and eventually slip away to the other room to watch a ballgame while we rehash events of our childhood, and discuss how they have impacted us as adults. Often I come away with a new perspective and a better attitude, so gatherings with my sisters are sort of like group therapy sessions. Only less expensive.

While it’s true that we share a common past, even sisters experience different events while growing up in the same household. I like to remind both of my sisters that, being the oldest, I blazed the trail for them. They both got their ears pierced sooner than I did, and wore lipstick, and shaved their legs. They were both allowed to date at an earlier age than I was, and stay out later. There are ten years between my youngest sister and me, so by the time she became a teenager, I had successfully driven our parents into a state of exhausted stupor, and she got to do pretty much whatever she wanted. (Which I still think is totally unfair, but that’s the way it is in most families, I’ve learned.) I think she owes me big-time.

My sisters and I do still have the occasional conflict. Author Linda Sunshine said, “If you don’t understand how a woman could both love her sister dearly and want to wring her neck at the same time, then you were probably an only child.” Our arguments don’t become physical anymore (we all understand the importance of good hair now, so we are no longer tempted to grab a handful), but these days, being at odds with one of my sisters is far more painful than our childhood brawls. Several years ago, my middle sister and I had a disagreement and didn’t speak to each other for a few days. I was miserable without her, but we both stubbornly refused to back down. While cooking dinner one evening, I dropped a glass measuring cup she had given me, and it shattered. When it did, my stubbornness broke into a million pieces. My husband brought the phone to me where I sat sobbing on the floor, surrounded by shards of glass, and said sternly, “Call your sister.” Never has a reunion been so sweet.
Someone once said that relationships between siblings are the most long-lasting and influential of all. My sisters have been a part of my life longer than my husband or my children, and they will be part of my life even after our parents are gone. They know me, and understand me, and they like me anyway. They’re one of the best blessings God has given me. And as Mom said, if I ever do need a kidney, I know who to call.

------------------

Eight Tips for Maintaining a Relationship with your Sister

In today’s busy world, it’s easy to let a relationship slide. That’s true regardless of whether you live nearby or far apart. Here are some tips for maintaining a strong relationship with your sister.

Scheduled Phone Calls – Communication is the key to any relationship, so don’t leave it to chance. Select a specific day each week for an uninterrupted phone call. Put your sister on your cell phone “Favorites” so you can talk free.

Text Messages – Texting is the preferred method of communication for one of my sisters. Be sure you have unlimited texts on your cell phone plan.

Utilize the Internet – Email and social networking sites like Facebook are wonderful ways to stay connected. On Goodreads and LibraryThing you can keep track of what your sister is reading, too.

Skype – If you both have a computer with a camera, this software allows you see each other while you talk – and it’s free.

Letters – Email is wonderful, but there’s nothing like reading your sister’s words in her own handwriting.

Cards – Next time you browse the card shelves, pick up several funny ones and tuck them away in a drawer. Send one every so often to surprise your sister with a laugh.

Sister Sleepovers – Even if you live near one another, there’s nothing like getting away from it all with your sister. Schedule an annual sleepover at a lodge, or hotel, or even at someone’s house. Leave the kids at home, and focus on having fun with each other.

Start a Tradition – Create a tradition you share only with your sister. For instance, one sister and I exchange ugly ornaments at Christmas every year. We spend months shopping for the ugliest ornament we can find, and love the competition of seeing who “wins” that year.

------------------

AUTHOR BIO:

Virginia Smith is the author of a dozen Christian novels including the Sister-to-Sister Series, which is based in large part on her relationship with her own sisters. Stuck in the Middle was a finalist for the 2009 ACFW Book of the Year award. Her newest book, Third Time’s a Charm, the third and final book in the series, is now available wherever books are sold. Learn more about Ginny and her books, and enter a Prize Bonanza Giveaway, at www.VirginiaSmith.org.

Christmas is coming!

2009-10-28T21:10:00.003-04:00

I am really excited about Christmas this year. Yes, I know we have two other holidays to go through before Christmas but...

"Claus and the King" is going to be produced at the West T. Hill Theatre here in Danville. My daughter Beth works for the theatre and will be directing it. She's directed many plays there so why am I so excited?

One night many years ago when I was the "Story Lady" for Danville community functions, I prayed, "Lord, please give me a new story for Christmas." Within an hour "Claus and the King" was written. I read it for the city recreation events, I read it for schools, I read it for churches, I read it for Senior Citizens. It was my husband's favorite of anything I ever wrote.

Then in 2007 I decided to turn the story into a play- a musical to house the songs that kept springing up into my mind that went along with the story. Songs like "I'm Off To Be A Magician" and "Christmas is Love". I wrote eight others in the process of writing the script.

And now it will be produced and I'm thrilled. There were very few adults who auditioned so we went with an all youth cast, except for the Grandmother who is telling the story.

There were children who opted not to audition for other plays because they wanted so much to be in one that celebrates Jesus. I believe the Lord brought together the cast and the crew. "Claus and the King" will only have a 5 performance run: Dec. 9-13 but I believe it will be an instrument for the Lord to work through and touch lives, not just those involved in the performances but the audiences as well.

It's funny about something like this. You (I) feel a certain amount of 'ownership' and yet you know you couldn't have done it on your own. "Claus and the King", in my opinion, is another parable told by the One who is "the same yesterday, today, and forever." And I am honored to be one part of His Body He tells it through.

For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities or powers: all things were created by Him and for Him. (Col. 1:16)

Anger Resolution

2009-07-28T11:31:00.002-04:00

At church, Sunday before last, I boiled down a 6 hour workshop on Anger Resolution to 30 minutes of sermon. I got more comments on that message than any previous ones in the 11 years I’ve been there. And it occurred to me that if I have a topic that Christians respond to so well, then perhaps I could/should put it on my blog. So we’re going to do something a little different for the next several weeks. I’m going to start off with things I have experienced or learned about anger and then I’d like to get your questions or experiences and we’ll go from there.

Anger is a powerful emotion. And it can have powerful expressions in and through your mind and body.

The first time I was aware of anger was when I was five years old. My best friend was Lucy Schultzman who lived about three houses away from mine and I loved to go to her house to play.
Her older sister had a doll with brown hair that I loved and wanted as my own. She ,the doll, not the sister J, was a little shabby but I loved her.

That Christmas I received a brand new blonde bride doll. It was a Toni doll and you could give her home permanents. I felt empowered. I marched down to Lucy’s house and presented her sister with the trade offer which she immediately agreed to. When I showed my parents my wonderful new doll, I was told I was “stupid and ungrateful” and that I had been taken advantage of. They sent me back to the Schultzman’s to re-trade.

I recall walking slowly down the street and feeling such fury at my parents that it scared me. I knew that if I let the anger out, they would both drop dead on the spot. So I stuffed it down somewhere inside. I later learned that is a typical instance of childhood magical thinking that believes the world revolves around oneself.

I traded back the doll and then came home and wrote my mother a letter. I wanted to tell her that I didn’t want her to die but at age five sometimes spelling can be a little wobbley. What I presented to my mother was a note that said “I hope you do not did.” She read it and laughed. The fury that I had stuffed down earlier threatened to resurface and finish the job. But I stuffed it deeper this time.

It would be over 40 years before I felt anger again. I honestly thought I never had anger at anyone – I felt sadness and emotional pain but never anger.

Then I discovered that anger is a part of our makeup as humans made in the image of God. In Ephesians 4:26 we are told to “be angry and sin not.” I found that anger turned inward manifests as depression. Hmmm. No wonder I spent a lot of years depressed. I found out that sometimes it’s very good to be angry. But always our anger should be resolved. In the next few weeks we’ll look at different ways to resolve anger. I hope you’ll share your stories about anger and how you resolved it…or request prayer and insight to be able to do so.

I hope you’ll tell your friends to join us in this adventure of Anger Resolution. I hope that you will pray for lives to be changed through this journey.

Rise up, Body of Christ!

2009-05-21T00:29:00.003-04:00

I know a man who had a brain stem stroke. His cognitive mind was not damaged at all. His intelligence remains intact but he can’t make any of his limbs or his mouth or his bodily functions do what he wants them to do. It’s very difficult to understand what he is trying to communicate and most people can’t. My heart aches for him.

The Body of Christ in the earth today is like that quadriplegic man. We have the perfect mind of Christ but we are more often than not disconnected, seeing only our own selfish desires, hanging on to our own opinions and doctrines, frustrating His communication and his will coming to pass in the earth.

Sometimes when I’ve been through a lot of pain, both physical and/or emotional, I just want to leave this earth. Then the Lord reminds me what I’ve often told others - that when any one of us die, there will be that much less a container for Him in the earth.

Christians are the physical vehicle of Jesus Christ in the world today. He told his first twelve disciples on the night before He died that the bread He broke represented His Body broken for them – and us. They didn’t understand that til later. And I’m not sure that the majority of the Body of Christ today still understands.

That perfect body Jesus had as He walked the earth was broken, killed, dead, so that His spirit could come and live through many members of a Body so large and diverse that we cannot begin to understand in our imaginations.

In October, 2001, shortly after the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, my prayer partner and I were praying for this nation and she had a vision. She saw the Bride of Christ lying across the continental United States and she began saying “Rise up, rise up!” She described what she saw and I immediately felt a huge sorrow as He showed me that His Bride, His Body in the earth, was not held down by forces from the outside but was weakened and powerless because of things within: strife and criticisms between doctrinal thinkers and denominations, selfish pursuits of individuals and groups, apathy, and ignorance about who and what the New Creation truly is, and ignorance about our mission in the earth. It reminded me of something the Lord spoke to me back in 1984. “People are building their own kingdoms in My Name.”

For over seven years since that vision, every night my prayer partner and I have prayed for the Body of Christ, that we will rise up and recognize who we are and become completely submitted to the Head so He can work through us to bring “His Kingdom come, His will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Recently I went through some very painful health issues and truly wished I could just go on to heaven. But the Lord reminded me “There are two of us in here. I need this part of my Body to work through.” So I threw off the selfishness and self pity and began fighting against the devil’s will for me, the one who comes to kill, steal and destroy, and made a choice to fight against him in cooperation with the one who comes that I may have life and have it in abundance. (John 10:10)

I believe that we are in the last times and that God has a huge work for His Body to do before He totally gives up on the world as it is. That same friend of mine had a vision a few years ago that still brings her to tears when she tells of it. The Christians were all together and she saw a streak off to her left. Then she realized that it was people going to hell, and they were going so fast and there were so many of them that it was just a blur.

We who are inhabited by the Spirit of the Lord are called to proclaim the good news that there is a living God who cares deeply about each person, who took their deserved punishments into His own Body through Jesus, the Savior, and was resurrected to live forever through those who die to self and receive His new life. I know very few people who take that calling seriously. I myself fail miserably in the area of evangelism. Forgive me, Lord.

Lord, forgive us for playing church instead of becoming the warriors You called us to be. Forgive us for disconnecting from you with our selfish desires and stubborn belief systems. Lord, make us one in Love and purpose so that we can rise up and BE Your Body in the earth to the glory of God and the furtherance of the Kingdom. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Helping God?

2009-05-02T13:07:00.002-04:00

I had a shock a few months ago. There was no one to blame but myself: I told the Lord I wanted nothing to stand between Him and me; I asked Him to purge me of anything in me that was displeasing to Him. I asked Him to search my heart and show me any sin I needed to confess and receive forgiveness for.

And He did.

I went off to the cottage at Aldersgate Camp in March and while it was a needed and fruitful visit, it was not my most favorite time alone with Him. He began to show me how I had committed the same sin over and over most of my life and never even saw it as sin.

Have you ever heard the saying “God helps those who help themselves?” That “scripture” is found in First Delusions 1:19. It actually came from Benjamin Franklin, not from God at all.

What I saw when God exposed my heart to me was that not only had I helped myself most of my life, I also had attempted to help God. Now that doesn’t sound so bad until you put it up against true wisdom like “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding”(Prov. 3:5) or “I will say of the Lord: He is my refuge and my fortress, my God; in Him will I trust.” (Psalm 91:2) And especially “Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, casting all your care on Him for He cares for you.” (I Peter 5:6)

Not only did the Lord show me how much I’d tried to help Him in the past during that week in the cottage, He has very faithfully shown me daily ever since then how much I’m still trying to help Him. It’s embarrassing.

You may try to help Him too.

If you are misunderstood and talked about, you may not wait for Him to clear up the situation but defend yourself to everyone around you instead of following Jesus “who when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judges righteously.” (I Peter 2:23)

When you have to speak to an audience or explain a situation, you may make notes and practice in front of a mirror instead of taking “no thought how or what thing you shall answer, or what you shall say: for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what you ought to say.” (Luke 12:11,12)

You may fret and stew over your financial situation instead of following Jesus’ admonition to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matt. 6:33)

When someone takes something that belongs to you, whether it’s a possession, a role in an organization, your reputation, or credit for something you did, you may believe it is the right thing to do to straighten out the situation instead of believing Jesus when He said “I say to you that you resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” And you may not believe what Paul wrote when He quoted God “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath; for it is written ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” (Romans 12:19)

Ouch! Are there any among us who have never taken things into our own hands? Any of us who trust the Lord perfectly with the things that are dearest to us?

I go back to Aldersgate shortly to spend time alone with the Lord again. I hope He doesn’t have to show me that I’ve continued to do these things in the past two months. But in case I have, I am so pleased that my favorite scripture is true, “If you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive your sin and cleanse you of all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9)

Want to pray with me?
Father, I come to you in Jesus Name, part of His Body in the earth. Thank you that you are purging us from all that is unpleasant to you, changing us from glory to glory by your Holy Spirit, as we look to Jesus. This day Lord, we choose to quit helping You with our lives, but instead we choose to make Jesus Lord over every detail of our lives. Help us to humble ourselves under your mighty hand so that you can exalt us in due time. Help us to look only to you as our Provider, Defender, Shepherd, Comforter, and Healer. So be it.

HAPPY RESURRECTION LIFE

2009-04-09T12:23:00.003-04:00

Jesus’ last prayer before He went out to His Passion was for all who would believe on Him down through the ages. It was a prayer for you and me.

He prayed, “that they all may be one; as thou Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou has sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou has loved me.”
(John 17:20-23)

When you recognize that prayer in light of “I am the vine, ye are the branches” (John 15:5) and “By this shall all know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” you begin to get a glimpse of your main purpose in life.

That purpose, your purpose here and now, is to live the Resurrection Life.
Your purpose is to show the love of God to a world that doesn’t know that He exists or that He loves each human being. But you can’t do that alone. It takes all the new creation beings, all who are born again, working together to perfectly reflect the awesome Love of the Creator Redeemer.

Paul’s two prayers for the Body of Christ recorded in Ephesians One and Three are keys to what we need to understand about our calling and purpose.

In Ephesians 1: 16-23, Paul asks the Father that YOU would receive the revelation of the resurrection power and how it works in you and all who believe, that you would understand that you now are part of His Body in the earth, forgiven, empowered, and given authority under Him over all things.

In Ephesians 3:14-19 Paul prays that we receive a revelation of the love of God so that we can be filled with the fullness of God. But he says we can only do that ‘with all saints’. In other words, it takes all of the Body of Christ to perfectly contain and pour forth His Love. Think of that! The fullness of God. Paul states that truth again in his letter to the Colossians “For in Him (Jesus) dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power.” (Col. 2:9 and 10)

My prayer for all of us who are one in Him is that we learn to love purely and wholly, that we reflect Him to all around us, that we understand His authority and let Him exercise it through us.

Go with Him to the Garden and say “Not my will but Thine be done.” Go with Him to the cross and say “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” And “Into Thy hands I commit my spirit.” Then come forth from the empty tomb with Him and say
He is risen.
He is risen indeed!
He is risen.
He is risen in me!

Daughters/Sisters

2009-02-17T22:10:00.004-05:00

I talked in the Valentine week blog about the autobiography I wrote 26 years ago, and this week I want to tell you some stories I was reminded of about my three biological daughters. (I have awesome stepdaughters and awesome God-daughters but they were not in the autobiography.)

My first daughter is Ginny, better known to the public as Virginia Smith, author, speaker, and singer. Ginny was a real trip as a kid. I knew by the time she was eight that she was smarter than I was. She was shoveling snow one day and I watched her while thinking out loud about a decision I needed to make. She stopped, leaned on the shovel and said, “Mom, you’ve done what everyone else wanted you to do all your life – first Granddaddy and then Daddy. You need to decide what you really want and then do it!” What a concept…I was speechless and could only think “out of the mouths of babes!” That moment made up for previous years when she autographed the walls above her bed and her sister’s with crayons, poured a giant bottle of shampoo into a small bathrug, picked flowers out of the neighbor’s gardens and then rang their doorbells and sold them bouquets, and other memorable actions too numerous to list. Well, maybe just the one where she blackmailed her sister Susie for several years because she accidently put a dent in my car while playing with a rock. I discovered it when I told Ginny to do dishes one night and she said “Susie wants to do them” Susie burst into tears and said “I can’t stand it anymore!” And confessed to me about the dent that I had completely forgotten about. Ginny did all the dishes for a month. She came to me one day when she was thirteen and said, "Mom, don't you think it's time I did something about God?" And so we knelt together to pray and her new life began - the one that has blessed everyone that knows her.

Then there was Susie, the Beauty Pageant winner. A study in extremes, she would cry over children at school who got their feelings hurt and make a special effort to be kind to them. But when her baby sister came along, after she had been my baby for eight years, I overheard her telling the little one that she was ugly. I also peeked around the corner and saw her holding her foot over the new baby who was lying on the floor on a blanket. She never touched her sister but said “Squish” in a very threatening way. That evening at the supper table I mentioned to my oldest two children about an interesting article I read - how in adult therapy they often find out that terrible self images began in infancy when most people thought the babies were too young to understand what was being said. After dinner I again peeked around a corner and heard Susie talking to her baby sister in the crib. “Beth, you’re the prettiest baby in the world. Anybody who ever said you were ugly was just jealous.” As a teen, Susie had the special gift of having a boy seated on each side of her at church, two in the pew in front of her, two in the pew in back of her, and each boy thinking they were the one who was most special to her. She turned that gift into making everyone she meets feel that way - and knowing her heart, it's probably true.

Third was Beth – who at age three stared up at her grandfather with serious speculation and said “You got nickels? I got pockets.” Beth - who at age twelve saw the eggs in the catfish her stepfather was cleaning, and offered to sit on them so they would hatch. Once when she was around ten, Beth asked for sheets with butterflies on them. I said no, the plain white ones were within our price range. Shortly afterwards she had a slumber party and came to me in tears the next day. She showed me how someone had taken a pen and written her name all over the new sheet – and they’d misspelled her last name. I felt so sorry for her I bought her the butterfly sheets. When she was twenty-five she confessed that she’d written on the sheets herself, being sure to misspell her name so I’d believe someone else did it. Beth - who resigned a job managing a movie theatre rather than run a documentary film showing true death scenes just for the horror of it. Beth has been in professional and community theatre since she was eleven years old, acting, teaching, directing. She is a home-school liason for the education system. Beth - whose ambition is to work at Disneyworld, as tour guide on the Jungle Cruise. She says it's because there is a new audience every three minutes. But I suspect it's because it would give her new people in whose life to bring joy every three minutes.

Something happened between the sisters that I’d forgotten about until I was reading that autobiography. When Susie was in college she majored in Communications and we all expected her to become a movie or TV star. Then she was in a car wreck which literally ripped her face. At the time they were talking plastic surgery and teeth problems and we didn’t know that she would end up as lovely as ever. But during that time not only was Susie’s faith in Jesus triumphant, both of her sisters taught me the depths of love that resided in them. They also were both beautiful young women but did not plan a career based on their looks. Each said to me, independently of the other,“ Why couldn’t it have been me instead of Susie?” If that isn’t enough to make a mother’s heart swell with pride I don’t know what is. And though Susie could have gone on to have that star career, she chose a helping profession – loving and teaching Special Needs Children.

All three of my daughters are filled with love and integrity. They are all hard workers and hugely fun to be around. They all give of themselves, far beyond the average person, in order to enrich the lives of others. Knowing what a mess I was during their childhood, I am in awe at what they have allowed the only truly Good Parent to do with their lives.

Children are a gift from God. They are His reward. Psalm 127:3

New Book Reaches Out to Every Female, No Matter Her Age

2009-02-16T08:35:00.000-05:00

Virginia Smith has done an amazing job of blending humor and pathos, self-assurance and fear, modern female business sense and ancient maternal instinct in the character and story of Allie Harrod. This second book of the “sister-to-sister” series AGE BEFORE BEAUTY reaches down and finds corresponding emotions in the hearts of every female, no matter what her age. I loved STUCK IN THE MIDDLE and this book leads us deeper into understanding how the home life of a child affects his or her emotions and choices throughout life. She shows us very beautifully, as Jesus did in His stories, that trust in the love of our heavenly Father is the only solid rock on which we can stand.

About the book:

Desperate to stay home with her baby, Allie Harrod launches a new career. Sure, she dropped out of Girl Scouts because she was lousy at cookie sales, but makeup is different, right? She'll do anything to make enough money to cover her share of the household bills, but how can she focus on her business when her list of problems is growing? None of her pre-baby clothes fit, her checking account is dwindling, and her mother-in-law has decided to move in! To top it off, her husband's attractive coworker suddenly needs his help every weekend. Middle sister Joan insists that God has the answers to all her problems, but Allie isn't so sure. Can she really trust him?

You can view a book trailer at Ginny's Web site.

About the author:

Virginia Smith left her job as a corporate director to become a full time writer and speaker with the release of her first novel Just As I Am. Since then she has contracted ten novels and published numerous articles and short stories. She writes contemporary humorous novels for the Christian market, including Murder by Mushroom, Stuck in the Middle, and her newest releases, A Taste of Murder and Age before Beauty.

In March of 2008 she was named "Writer of the Year" at Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference. An energetic speaker, Virginia loves to exemplify God's truth by comparing real-life situations to well-known works of fiction, such as her popular talk, "Biblical Truths in Star Trek."
Visit Ginny's Web site.

Ginny's book is on a "blog tour." You can visit the other blogs participating in the tour:

Christian Work at Home Moms

Lynda Schab's On the Write Track

A Mom Who Loves Reviews

LillePunkin

The Life of a Home Mom

Frugal Living

Gone Frugal

Bibliophile's Retreat

Book Bargains and Previews

My Reading Room

Mountain Breeze Writer

Christian Book Scout

Books, Movies, Chinese Food

Edgy Inspirational Author

Pix-N-Pens

Relz Reviewz

Vicki Tiede's Grace Lessons

Camy's Loft

Cara's Musings

Jill Elizabeth Nelson's Artistic Blogger

MY VALENTINE

2009-02-11T20:34:00.006-05:00

This week I found a humorous spiritual autobiography I wrote several decades ago when Gary and I had been married a little over a year. Re-reading the stories made me laugh sometimes and sometimes made me cry.

Gary Barkman is my third husband. I was his third wife and we both were afraid to ruin our friendship by getting married. But that was 27 years ago next month and we’re not worried anymore.

I used to think that the only differences between men and women were physical ones. Boy was I wrong! Gary was greatly relieved when he took a course that taught us some basic differences. He attributes to that course the fact that he is my last husband instead of just the present one. The first breakthrough we had was that “men think in headlines and women think in fine print.”

Think about it:
Her: How was your day?
Him: Fine.
Her: What did you do?
Him: Work.
Her: What did you have for lunch?
Him: Food.
Her: What kind of food?
Him: A sandwich.

If the occasion arose the other way around:
Him: How was your day?
Her: Great! Helen and I are becoming good friends. You know, she’s the one at the office who (explanation of Helen). And then I met Anne for lunch. We went to the Chinese restaurant and I had (description of food). And I did twice as much work as this time last month; I think I’m really catching on to this new job (explanation of new job as opposed to old job.)

But that occasion would probably never arise – well, the monologue by her will most likely be given but not the question, because he can tell by looking that her day was ‘fine’ and that’s all that is important.

I have made several observations about men over the years and still believe most of what I wrote 25 years ago – at least for my generation of males.

Men assume that drink carrying (coffee, tea, cola, etc) is a favorite pastime of wives.
When they stay home alone with their children it is babysitting.
When they run the vacuum cleaner, it is ‘helping’ the female.
When they cook a meal it is on Valentine’s Day.
They like to buy presents for females.
They like to look at females.
They fear females are a superior race and spend a lot of energy pretending that fear does not exist.

There is something I have not figured out about being female.

Him: Do we have anything to drink?
Me: (determined not to move out of my chair) Yes.
Him: What?
Me: (gripping the edges of my chair) Pepsi, tea…
Him: No coffee made?
Me: No. (digging my heels into the floor. )
Heavy silence permeates the room for several minutes.
Me: (feeling like a traitor to my very self) Would you like me to make some coffee?
Him: If you want.

I don’t want. But the invisible rope drags me into the kitchen. What is it? Cultural conditioning? Hormones? Lack of iron? When I hand him the cup, he says “Thank you, Sweetheart.” And I feel some strange sort of satisfaction inside. Is it just me or part of the mystery of femaleness?

I appreciate Gary because I never had to earn his approval by being a good housekeeper or having a perfect figure. One morning during a period when I didn’t work outside the home and he worked hard everyday, I noticed him picking up a pair of dirty socks and putting them on. When I asked why, he looked uncomfortable and confessed he hadn’t had any clean ones for three days.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked with tears of remorse.
“I know you had more important things to think about.”
How can you respond to a husband like that except to love washing his socks?

When he was a volunteer fireman, he came home one day after he and another of the crew held phone duty. He relayed their discussion about God. At the end of the conversation, the man said, “You sound like you’ve got it all together.” Gary answered, “No, when you think you’ve got it all together, you’re in trouble. You’ve got to stay like a little child, always ready to learn something new.”

That’s about as ‘all together’ as most of us humans ever get.

Gary and I had some pretty rough times in our relationship from marriage year 3 until marriage year 23 when he got on his knees and asked me to marry him again on our 25th wedding anniversary in 2007. I said “Yes.” And for two years he courted me and restored the love and respect I started out with.

I’m more proud of my husband than ever. Since his paralysis over a year ago, he has had a wonderful positive attitude, determined to find things to joke about, and made sure everybody knows “God didn’t cause this; the devil did. But one way or another God is going to get some glory out of it!”
I just thought he was great 27 years ago. Now he is my hero.

I dedicated that never published autobiography “to my husband because - of all the mistakes I’ve made in life, marrying you was not one of them.” How true that was!

On our first anniversary Gary, who mostly communicated in grunts, pointed fingers, and held out coffee cups wrote me a letter. In it he told me what our year of marriage had taught him about love.

"Love is not a state of mind. Love is giving of yourself.
Love is caring. Love is letting the other person speak when you want to talk. Love is helping someone learn how to love again. Love is giving, a giving that comes from the heart. It is the opening of the heart to someone and leaving yourself wide open to them. Love is a beautiful, precious, and wonderful Gift."

Happy Valentine’s Day!
May God bless us all with the gift of His Love that allows us to love others.

LIVING PARABLES

2009-02-05T11:09:00.004-05:00

It is interesting to me that last week I wrote about what being Colonists in the Kingdom was all about because immediately after that post, I saw the Kingdom Colony in action here in my own community. The very next day an ice storm hit and most of the area had no electricity for days. That meant no heat for the majority of families. We lost water for over a day and when it came back on, it was not drinkable. We lost phone lines. After six days electricity was restored to my home, after seven we got phone – and internet – back, and after eight days water was declared safe to drink.

I have to admit that I kind of enjoyed the challenge of learning to cook on a gas grill while dressed in many layers out on my porch. (Especially when it resulted in things like perfect scrambled eggs and homemade potato salad). Reading by candlelight made me admire my pioneer ancestors. Being woken up by the cold and forcing myself to stay awake until the propane heater brought the two rooms we had blocked off livable again made me appreciate heat that one can sleep through without fear of dangerous fumes. We were very blessed by having a propane heater, a gas grill, lots of propane – and a generator for the last three days.

But the thing I loved most about our crisis was seeing the Kingdom Colonists in action. Neighbors on our street came and cleared away the tree limbs and ice that blocked what would be an escape route if we needed one. Neighbors from another town came and chopped down dangerous limbs over our yard and driveway – and hauled them away. Those neighbors were not employees paid by anyone to do that, just volunteers we’d never seen before that would take no pay for their help. Neighbors from other states called on our cell phones to make sure we were okay. Neighbors from our church brought drinkable water from their well. We found out that neighbors we still have not met told our children they would come to our town to check on their parents if needed. Neighbors that are our children brought in food and fuel supplies. And a neighbor who happens to be my sister sent money to cover the extra costs incurred.

I was sorry that the training event where I was to present a ninety minute power point presentation on “Become A Living Parable” had to be cancelled. BUT I was thrilled to see Living Parables in action all around me.

On our local radio station here in Danville, KY and on the radio station in nearby Stanford (and probably others that I just haven’t heard about) the personnel not only kept the public informed about progress and shelters and available help; they took calls of people with needs and calls of people saying they were on the way to meet those needs. They too calls from the lonely, and they calmed the anxious and depressed, and asked that people who lived nearby visit and comfort and share with them. I never heard so many “God bless you’s” and “Keep praying’s” on public communication vehicles (and these were not “Christian” radio stations). I didn’t hear the call where a woman phoned in with complaints – but I did hear the call when she phoned in to apologize for her previous impatience and expressed her gratitude for all the crews working 24/7 to help restore her losses. That and many other calls including other thank you's and prayers for work crews brought tears to my eyes.

Many people who had generators or alternate heat sources took others into their homes. I heard of one lady who worked at a bank in Frankfort and saw an elderly woman of another race looking sad and shivering. On questioning, she discovered that the woman and her husband were without heat or electricity or propane heaters or any alternate shelter. The bank employee, who lived alone, took that elderly couple into her own home for two days until their power was restored.

When Jesus and a lawyer agreed that the great law is ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself,” the lawyer asked “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus answered by telling the parable that we know as “The Good Samaritan” where a Jewish man was in trouble and two people of his own race passed by without helping him before a Samaritan provided all he needed. Then Jesus asked the lawyer, “Which of the three was neighbor to him?” and the lawyer answered “He that showed mercy on him.” Jesus said “Go and do thou likewise.”

That was the parable that I saw come alive in my community and region recently; that was the Kingdom Colony at work. I hope I never forget it and am at some time in a position to also become a Living Parable to many.

“Go and do thou likewise!” (Luke 10:25-37)

THINK KINGDOM

2009-01-26T20:19:00.002-05:00

THINK KINGDOM !

If you are a Christian, you are a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, a COLONIST of that Kingdom in whatever country on earth you happen to live.

Your loyalty is to the Kingdom of God. Your rules and principles are to be His rules and principles.

The following definitions of a Colonist are taken from Myles Munroe’s book “Kingdom Principles.” The words in italics are mine.

1. A colony is a group of citizens established in a foreign territory to influence that domain for their home government. YOU are here as part of a group to influence wherever you are and who ever you are with - for God’s will and purpose.
2. A colony is a foreign territory inhabited by citizens charged to influence that domain with the culture and values of their government. THIS WORLD is the foreign territory – the whole world, not just our own nation. Colonies are everywhere that the citizens of the kingdom are living. You are charged with influencing the world around you with Kingdom values.
3. A colony is the presence of a distinct cultural citizenry in a foreign territory governed by the laws and culture of their home government. The country you live in may say it’s legal to do many things that your home government, the Kingdom of God, says are not legal. You are a presence here and now to BE GOVERNED BY THE KINGDOM laws and culture.

The apostle Peter says we are strangers and pilgrims on the earth, a holy nation and royal priesthood. Paul said that the world was crucified to him and he to the world. (I Peter 2:9-11; Galatians 6:14)
Jesus said He came to preach the Kingdom and that those who sought it first would find everything else they need provided for them. John says it’s God’s will that we prosper and are healthy even as our souls prosper. Hmm, wonder if our souls not seeing ourselves as Kingdom citizens first of all is a clue to why we’re not receiving everything we need? (Matt. 4:17,23; 6:33; III John 2)

Citizenship in any country is automatic if you are born there. You were born into the Kingdom of God when you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, and received the new life He died to give you. You are first and foremost a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven.

It is time for the Body of Christ to stop seeing themselves as separated by nationality, race, gender, doctrines, or politics and recognize their common citizenship in the Kingdom of God. Time to recognize that we are Colonists of the Kingdom of Heaven. Time to recognize it and act like it!

Ask our Heavenly Father to help you see the Body of Christ the way He does…one nation inhabiting many places all over the globe. Start thinking about what we’ll look at next – your part in the responsibility of the Royal Family.

Think KINGDOM!

New Year's Resolutions

2009-01-17T19:29:00.006-05:00

My New Year's resolution made shortly after midnight on January 1, 2009, was to update my blog weekly. It is now January 17 and I am finally updating it for the first time since November.

Perfect opportunity to feel like a failure, right?

Recently I recognized that I've been engaging in the ministry of the devil. You probably are going down a mental list of obvious sins of the flesh or sins against others and wondering which I've committed. But those things are not the main ministry of the devil.

We see that ministry exposed in Revelation 12: 10 & 11: And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven 'Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony...'

The main ministry of the devil is accusation against the believer. If he can get you to believe yourself to be incompetent, you will be. If he can make you feel unworthy to receive from God, you won't receive. If he can make you believe you are outside of God's love, you won't experience it.

My engaging in the ministry of the devil has not been accusing others but listening to his accusations against me - and repeating them to my self and others.

Right now, I repent. I am a new creation in Christ Jesus and since His mercies are renewed every morning - each day can begin a New Year for each of us.

Isn't our God awesome?

Here are my New Year's resolutions:

1. I will NOT say demeaning things about myself.

2. I will write on my blog and anywhere else no more and no less than our Lord gives me wisdom and direction to write - when He says to write it.

3. I will continue to trust Him for healing, finances, and direction because I believe He IS my Shepherd - my healer, caregiver, provider, and leader.

4. I will remind myself how important prayer is...it is meeting with God to show Him love and respect, to receive reminders of His love for me, to formally put my faith in His promises, and to allow Him to use me as a bridge for Him to walk into the lives of others.

5. I will continue to trust the One who is Love Himself to work through me, who am part of His Body in the earth, to touch others and work miracles in their lives.

6. I will praise Him for Who He is as often as I can.

7. I will believe His Word instead of the world, the flesh, and the devil. I'd love to hear your resolutions. Pray for me to receive strength from Him to keep mine and I'll pray for strength from Him for you to keep yours.

HAPPY NEW YEAR IN HIS LOVE

Lessons in the Fire

2008-11-24T01:32:00.003-05:00

I had the most awesome time last week in my retreat cottage in the mountains. I call it mine but it’s actually part of Aldersgate Camp. However, whenever I go, there is always a paper on the table that says “Welcome Home, Amy Barkman” so I figure they won’t mind me calling it mine.

I went there very tired and discouraged, realizing that although my faith was still strong as far as belief in God’s Word and His love for us, I had lost my passion for ministry, for the Word, for prayer, for everything. I was plodding through my days, trying to do His will the best I could. I knew I needed a rest physically and emotionally. I took several Christian novels with me, along with a counseling course by dvd that I intended to study, several critiques to do for the Christian writer’s groups of which I’m a part, and some programs to work on.

But God had other plans.

I got there on Monday afternoon and left Friday morning. Every day I prayed, sang along with praise and worship music, prayed, read my Bible, did a devotional in “Awaken Me” (see the link to Promise Garden) and read A.W.Tozer’s “The Pursuit of God.”, studied scripture with Strong’s Concordance and the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, and took Holy Communion.

For the first time in a long time, I would look up a scripture and get so interested that the next thing I knew I had devoured several chapters. There is nothing more exciting than having that kind of hunger for the Word.

What happened? How did I get there passionless and become so filled with Himself that the days flew by in ceaseless praise and joy? It started with the fire.

One of the things I love about going there in cool weather is the large fireplace. I build a fire every afternoon and keep it going until bedtime. It’s so cozy. But this time when I got there on Monday afternoon I tried to build a fire and it wouldn’t start. I was shocked. I was a Girl Scout and have always been proud of my fire-building ability. I crumpled up papers, I rolled up papers like logs, I took a knife and shaved off bits of log, I broke up small sticks. I lit papers eight times and every time they would blaze up in a lovely burst of flame and then go away without affecting the logs. Eight times of starting that fire but nothing would happen. Finally I gave up.

Sighing in disappointment, I said, “Lord, if You want me to have a fire, You’ll have to start it Yourself.”

Then I settled myself on the couch and began reading my devotional material. Every now and then I would glance over to see if a fire had started. But nothing. A couple of times I saw something shining out of the corner of my eye, but it was just the light glancing off the side of my glasses. Finally I put the fire entirely out of my mind and began focusing on the Lord. After about twenty minutes I heard a noise and looked up. The roar was from the fire as the logs were blazing with lovely dancing flames. My heart leaped in joy. He did it! He gave me my fire.

And then a still small voice in my heart said, “Your whole life is like that. You can’t start the fire yourself. When you give up and just concentrate on Me, I will fill you with passion for Me and for ministry, for My Word and for life.” And then He proceeded to do so.

From then on, each day my fires started up immediately on the first try. And… The next day in the “Awaken Me” devotional the topic was “Fan the Flames.” NOT a coincidence! In part it read “Burn off the chaff in my heart. Make my heart pure and good. Fill it with truth, compassion, tenderness and love. Melt my pride. Build a bonfire if necessary. Weld me to your ways. Let the heat of your holy flames destroy the logs of self-centeredness, the timber of wrong motives, the tinder of following others and the kindling of white lies.” And I proceeded to let Him do so.

He led the Israelites in the wilderness by fire, He proved Himself to the priests of Baal by fire, He appeared in flames of fire on the Day of Pentecost. And He taught Amy Barkman lessons in the fire at Aldersgate Camp and purged her heart as much as she would allow by the fire of His burning love. And He filled her with fire anew – a passion for Him and His people, His Word and His Will.

Praise the Lord, for His mercy endures forever.

Best Friends

2008-11-16T22:10:00.003-05:00

I’ve had several people I’ve called best friends over the years…I usually have two or three at least. But the one who has lasted the longest and who knows all my secrets from childhood on is Jacque (pronounced Jackie, short for Jacqueline). I walked into my sixth grade class the first day of school and saw a new girl with blonde pigtails sitting at a desk near the front of the room. I’d never known anyone with pigtails and was immediately intrigued. That was fifty-five years ago and it’s been over five decades since the pigtails were traded for the short hair more conducive to the sports activities so dear to her heart.

Jacque and I were always very different so it seemed odd that we were such good friends.

I hated physical exertion of any kind, and enthusiasm about sports, even as a spectator, remains an enigma to me. Jacque, on the other hand, stays glued to the TV during basketball season and usually watches football and baseball too. A knee injury keeps her from the tennis, golf, and water skiing that were her passion for years. As kids, we’d go to the pool together and she’d swim and exercise while I went to the locker room and read. The only thing we had in common was that we laughed a lot – the whole world seemed like a comedy arranged for our amusement.

Jacque and I were not model teenagers. At Girl Scout Camp we caused so much trouble that the District Director came to our cabin and, in tears, told us that in her seventeen years of leadership, she had never run into two girls like us and she wasn’t sure what to do with us. We looked at each other in awe, with great pride that we had reduced this pillar of strength to tears. We were kind of hoping she’d expel us from camp so we could go home where there weren’t so many rules and restrictions. But she hadn’t been leading girls for seventeen years without learning some things. She kept us there and put us in different cabins and in different work/play groups. Evil woman!

Sometime in our twenties, I reconnected with Jesus, and Jacque found Him for the first time. Since then, around 40 years, Jacque and I have been prayer partners, accountability partners, and partners in the gospel. Together we founded Voice of Joy Ministries.

God had a plan for those two silly eleven-year-olds, those two rebellious teens, that we couldn’t see at the time…and neither could anybody else! Except Him.

Hopefully we’ll meet the Lord in the air together. I’ve often thought I wouldn’t know how to function in this world without Jacque if something happened to her and she left here before I do. But I remind myself that I have an even better friend. His name also starts with a J. He’s Jesus and I never have to fear separation from Him. And it’s because of Him that I have all the best friends I’ve had throughout life…they are part of His Body in the earth.

Do you have stories about best friends? If so, please share. I’m going off to be alone in a mountain retreat cottage with my very number one Best Friend, Jesus, this week. Another best friend Tracy Ruckman will be approving the publication of your responses.

God bless you.

Small Churches

2008-11-07T18:34:00.003-05:00

I’m in my eleventh year as the pastor of Mortonsville United Methodist Church in Woodford County Kentucky. I am the first female pastor they ever had. For the previous forty years they were served by Asbury Seminary students and my opinion has always been that they would have accepted a cow if it was middle-aged and had some experience. Just kidding. There were some wonderful student pastors over those decades, some that I highly respect who have gone on to bigger – if not necessarily better – things.

I’ve turned down two bigger churches, closer to home in this last decade. And I turned them down before my husband told me that if I'd agreed to move, he would have stayed there at Mortonsville – even though it’s a 50 minute drive one way each Sunday.

It’s the first tiny church I’ve ever been in and I love it. I’ve always been a small group kind of person and our church is like a cell group in a mega church. In fact that’s exactly what we are – a cell group in THE mega church called the Body of Christ.

Since I’ve been there, morning worship has grown from an average of fourteen to an average of twenty-one. Wow! That’s a fifty percent increase. Or is at a thirty three and a third percent increase? Anyway percentage wise we’ve done great.

The other greatness I’ve seen in ten years is that we have all deepened spiritually even more percentages than we’ve grown in numbers. We can't provide all that everyone needs in a church and know it. We pray for families that need a church with youth programs etc, that they will find the right one. We take up an extra monthly offering for missionaries and people in need, on top of the tithe and a half we send to the missions and work of the United Methodist Church in Kentucky.

Most importantly we love each other. The first Sunday of each month we share Holy Communion and then afterwards have a covered dish luncheon. The third Sunday of each month those that want to, go out together to a restaurant. Even though we only meet on Sunday mornings, with our meals, phone calls, and e-mails we spend more time in the Word together than many larger churches. And we laugh a lot because in His presence is fullness of Joy.

Sometimes I feel guilty because I know that our little church out in the country, without even a parking lot, will never grow big…and I’m glad! But the Lord reminds me that I have no concept of the impact to the Kingdom of those wonderful saints of God. I am honored beyond measure to be the pastor of a small church.

This week we are saluting a small church that’s bigger than Mortonsville - but sounds wonderful. We heard of it through friends who have relatives who attend. We’d like to ask you to add your prayers to ours for their growth, both spiritually and physically. God bless you, East Cherokee Community Church! Check them out at http://www.eastcherokee.com/

"And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Hebrews 10:24,25 NRSV

Winners

2008-11-02T01:15:00.003-04:00

Wow! I wasn’t expecting my own emotional reactions to this contest. It made me want to be wealthy enough to give Applebee’s cards to everyone who wanted them. But since that hasn’t happened yet, we had to choose. In fact, I had to call in four more judges besides the three we announced because each of us had completely different choices at first. This was a very hard contest to judge because all the entries were awesome.

The winner of the Applebee’s $25 gift card is: “Mommy To Those Special Ks” posted October 28 11:32 p.m.

The first runner up was “Sandy” who posted at October 28, 7:14 p.m. My husband, who is a disabled veteran himself, said he would donate the second Applebee’s Card. So we have two winners of Applebee’s cards.

And although I don’t have a lot of money, I do have time – and can make it legally, even when I run out :-) - so you who requested the e-mail counseling sessions will all receive them. That’s Lisa, Deborah, Kathy, Elizabeth, and Ellen. Contact me by e-mail at amygary@mis.net and let me know your topic of choice – Anger Resolution, Panic Attacks, Wordtherapy, and Growing in Humility. Or feel free to ask questions concerning the topics or choose one of your own to submit and I’ll see if I feel competent to work through it with you. We’ll get started as soon as the topic is settled. The rest of you please pray that we have great breakthroughs.

The first person, CanCan – post October 28 2:30 a.m. - who requested as first choice the books by my daughter, Virginia Smith, will receive the autographed ones. The others who requested them will receive unsigned copies: Sherrylinn, Sherry B, Ellen, Sarah, Royaldixie, Jen, Sandy, Carolynn, and Tammy.

The Applebee’s card and book winners need to send me a postal mailing address so I can get your prizes out to you this week.

I want to say a special thank you to someone who did not win, but her entry was so creative that I want to applaud her for it. Elsie posted on October 29 at 2:25 p.m. She closed with the following rhyme:

I can be silly.
I am so blessed.
Am I normal?
It’s your guess…

Elsie, if you want books too, they are yours.

Thank you to all who participated and I hope you come back to join us here. I’d love to get to know each of you. Be sure and vote for God’s Word and Will on election day!

God bless you all.

In His Love, Amy

Bloggy Carnival

2008-10-27T06:00:00.002-04:00

Hi, Friends. This week we are participating in “Bloggy Carnival” and are giving away three prizes:

1. A $25 gift certificate to Applebee’s restaurant.

2. Six prayer counseling sessions by e-mail on any of the following: Anger resolution, Wordtherapy, Panic attacks, Growing in Humility

3. Autographed copies of award winning author Virginia Smith’s “Just As I Am” and the sequel “Sincerely Mayla.”

Enter by clicking on ‘older posts’ at the bottom of this page and going to the post “Normal”. Respond with a description of how you are, or are not, normal – in 80 words or less. Be sure and put your e-mail address and your prize preference in your post (not counted in word count). The three most original entries will be the winners. Deadline is Friday October 31. Check back on Monday November 3 to see if you are a winner.

Judges are : Amy Barkman, Pastoral Counselor, Director of Voice of Joy Ministries; Beth Marlowe, Theatrical Director and Acting/Forensic/Music Coach; Tracy Ruckman, Editor, Photographer, Writer.

In case of a prize preference tie, the winning entries will be drawn from a hat - or bowl.

God bless you and may each of you who enter be blessed by considering how much God loves you as you look at the uniqueness of who you are. And remember – you are a good idea God had!

In His Love,
Amy

Become As Little Children

2008-10-07T13:29:00.007-04:00

Voice of Joy Ministries held our annual women’s retreat on September 27. The theme this year was “Become as Little Children” based on Jesus instruction in Matthew 19: 1-4 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" He called a little child, whom he placed among them. And he said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes a humble place—becoming like this child—is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

It was one of my favorite retreats because we all relaxed in the presence of our heavenly Abba Father. We even played for a while in the morning and again in the afternoon: jacks, mini-pool, Velcro darts, Crazy Eights, hoola hoop, and some made crafts.

You may say “But playing silly games wasn’t what Jesus was talking about!” And you are right. But humbling ourselves can be very difficult. Even playing can feel silly when we are all ‘grown up’. But that very playing put us in an attitude of humility so that when ministry time arrived, we were ready to humble ourselves enough to minister and be ministered to as we stood in a circle and trusted Him to help us be His voice to one another through prayer, scripture, and words of wisdom.
During the day, we looked at the humble life of Heidi who trusted the Lord through many changes of location and guardians. We looked at the submission of Pollyanna who played “The Glad Game” and always found something to rejoice about during difficult times. We looked at the humility of Winnie the Pooh, a bear of very little brain but very large heart.

Could it be that we think too much with unrenewed minds instead of trusting the Lord with all our hearts? One of my prayers for the Body of Christ is that we will truly become as little children looking not to people or governments – whether they be national, state, or church – but trusting our heavenly Father for all things: peace, joy, love, faith, health, provision, and success.
In the words of another wise child, Tiny Tim, “God bless us every one!”

Star of the Show

2008-08-18T13:56:00.008-04:00

A few years ago I realized that I saw myself as the center of the action all around me - as if I am the star of my particular movie in life. Surely I'm not self centered??? But even though I loved serving others and giving, I still saw the movie as about me and my choices. I didn't want to be prideful or centered on self so I asked the Lord to help me.

He led me to practice seeing myself as a supporting actress in the movies of the lives of others, like my husband, children, grandchildren, close friends. Then He took me deeper and helped me see myself as filling a bit part in the lives of fellow church members, neighbors, other friends. Finally He showed me how to just be a walk on in the motion picture story of the check-out clerk or fellow shopper.

How do my actions cause joy or sorrow, confusion or peace in their lives?

This helped a lot in my attempts at unfocusing on me and focusing on Him and others. But recently there have been a lot of supporting roles and bit parts that added up to resentment of my roles in life. "Yes, we are called to be servants but does that mean I have no life of my own, uh, I mean doesn't my movie ever get shown at all?"

Finally after much grumbling and many tears of frustration and guilt on my part, the Lord spoke to my heart very clearly. "Let me be the star of the show."

Huh? Wow. It finally dawned on me: If Jesus is the star of the show, the center of the movie of my life, then I no longer have any reason to feel that servanthood steals from me. It's not my movie at all; it's His.

Hmm. That sounds familiar.

You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. I Corinthians 6:19,20 NLT

What a relief. I can relax and let Him live His resurrection life through me and be The Star of the Show. And never be frustrated or resentful again.

Can't I?

I can do everything with the help of Christ who gives me the strength I need. Philippians 4:13 NLT

And so can you!

Jesus Others You

JESUS is Your: Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, Redemption

2008-07-30T19:06:00.003-04:00

In I Corinthians 1, the apostle Paul reminds us that without Jesus we are nothing. He even goes so far as to say that we are foolish and weak and base. But that even though we have nothing to be proud of in ourselves, Jesus is made to us who are in Him: wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. (verse 30)

What does that mean? All those attributes can be looked at separately and I believe they also form a progression

Wisdom is the ability to use knowledge with love. The beginning of wisdom according to Proverbs 1:7 is the fear of the Lord. That fear means a holy respect of God based on knowledge of His nature. His nature is absolute Goodness which rejects all badness. To understand that is to acknowledge our need of a Savior from the inherent badness in us all.
To understand that God’s nature is also Love gives us hope that He will do something about our needy condition. Wisdom comes through Jesus to us to show us our need and where to find the answer. Then wisdom is our own and we look to God for salvation.

Righteousness is not only right standing with the Father but rightness or goodness itself. Jesus “became sin so that we can become the righteousness of God.” (II Cor. 5:21) Jesus didn’t just die on the cross and take the punishment deserved for our sinfulness. He took the sin itself. To understand that takes a revelation from God. Grace and Mercy are beyond human understanding. But Praise the Lord, He did not leave us with only our human understanding. He reveals Himself and His love through His actions. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their sins against them.” (II Cor. 5:19) If you have received Jesus as your savior, and been born again, you are now righteous. Not only are you in right standing with the Father, you have within you a righteous or good nature.
But do you ever wonder where it is hiding?

Sanctification is the process of goodness working itself outward from your new born-again spirit through your soul nature: will, mind, and emotions. And then out further into your body, actions, and circumstances.
Think of yourself like Mary who said “Be it done to me according to your word.” And the Holy Spirit came upon her and the life within her was the child of God.
When you asked the Lord to be your Savior, God placed a new life in you. Right now that life is growing and maturing. One day you will celebrate your own Christmas when that new life has matured enough to be seen forever in the world around you.
Unlike Mary you see that new life at work sometimes now. Goodness is a process. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you both to will and to do His good pleasure.” (Phil. 2:12,13)
You have to cooperate but it is His nature and life inside that is working goodness all through your nature and life.
Redemption is the result of God’s work for you and in you.
“You are not your own, you are bought with a price.” (I Cor. 6:20) We sing “redeemed by the blood of the Lamb” but do we really know what that means?
Did you or anyone you know ever use a pawn shop. People take something precious there and leave it in exchange for money. They have a certain amount of time to redeem the item…buy it back…before it is sold.
Adam sold himself and his descendents into the hands of the enemy. But in the fullness of time, God sent Jesus to redeem - buy back- Adam’s race.
Every single result of the fall of Adam in the garden is done away with by the blood of Jesus who was given as the redemption price.
The devil is called the accuser of the brethren (Rev. 12:10) He wants you to believe that you deserve bad things. He will even try to make you think God sends bad things to you but he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44).
The truth is that you are redeemed (bought back) from all the bad things that happen from being separated from God. “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us…that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ…” Gal. 3:13 Sometimes go back in to the Old Testament and read in Deuteronomy 28 to find out what belongs to you and what you are redeemed from.

Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, Redemption – all yours through Jesus Christ.

FOCUS ON OUR LEADER

2008-06-28T14:51:00.003-04:00

In our fourth FOCUS ON HIM devotional, let’s look at God as OUR LEADER. Besides His familiar promises in Psalm 23 to lead us beside still waters and in paths of righteousness, God promised to guide us with peace. “For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace…” Isaiah 55:12. That is one of my favorite promises. I suspect that the still waters are a symbol of the peace that the Prince of Peace puts in our hearts.

If you are confused about which path to take, stand still until you experience peace. Think over the possibilities that lie ahead with each alternative choice. And listen with your heart. The very God of Peace will connect you with His will and lead you in the right path. You can count on it!

One day I was on my way to the grocery for Thanksgiving supplies, and had a sudden urge to go by the library. It made no sense. I didn’t want anything from the library and I had a lot of preparation left for the family dinner. But I asked the Lord what He wanted me to do. I didn’t hear a voice, inner or outer, but I knew that if I didn’t go by the library my heart would be in turmoil. As soon as I made the decision, peace flooded me.
I wandered around the shelves for a few minutes, wondering why I was there, feeling a bit silly.

“Amy, is that you?” A man in his seventies who’d attended some of my Bible studies peered around a corner. After I smiled at him, he continued. “Can I talk to you?” We found two chairs in a quiet corner and he began to tell me that he’d experienced seasonal depression since he was a child. Through tears, he told me that year was the worst ever and he’d even thought about suicide. We talked a while about God’s love for him and then I prayed for him and against depression. We said goodbye and I went on to the grocery.

That was several years ago and he has never experienced seasonal depression again, and in fact is happier year round than ever before.

The Lord led me in a right path in order to minister to that beloved child of His through this part of His Body in the earth. He did it by leading me forth in peace - and I went out with joy!

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them. And they follow me.” John 10:27

Don’t forget to Follow the Leader!

Focus on Him 3 Our Savior

2008-06-16T17:35:00.005-04:00

This is the third in our “Focus On Him” devotional series. In the first we looked at what is meant by Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, for he trusteth in thee. Isaiah 26:3
Peace – Shalom in the Hebrew– means wholeness. connectedness with God . nothing missing, nothing broken. When we keep our mind focused on God, He is able to keep us in perfect peace, make us perfectly whole.

Last week we focused on God as Father, the One who gave us new life and wants to give us everything else. Our heavenly Abba, Daddy of our new creation lives, sees us as beloved children. We need to study the life of Jesus as written in the Gospels for our understanding of God because He said “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” John 13:9

This week we are focusing on God as Savior. The very name Jesus means ‘the Salvation of Jehovah’. Christ means ‘the anointed'. Jesus Christ is the salvation available from the Father, the One anointed to bring salvation to mankind. We are told in Isaiah 59:16 "His own arm worked salvation for Him."

Jesus, the arm of God to bring salvation to you, bore the punishment of our sins on the cross of Calvary but He did much more than that. He bore the sins themselves. I like to think of Him taking that sin nature into Himself like a magnet. He has done the job but when I release the sins instead of clinging on to them, they fly to the cross and leave me, so I can walk as the new creation child of God that I am.

The word salvation is ‘soteria’ in the Greek and literally means, according to Strong’s Greek Dictionary, ‘material and temporal deliverance from danger and apprehension’ ‘spiritual and eternal deliverance” “present experience of God’s power to deliver from the bondage of sin”,” maintenance of peace and harmony”.

We often think of salvation or the answer to the question “Are you saved?” in terms of going to heaven instead of hell when we die. But as you can see from the above definitions, that is only one aspect of what God has made available to you in salvation.

One of my favorite Old Testament Stories is in II Chronicles, Chapter 20. Three armies have come against Israel, and King Jehoshaphat seeks the Lord, freely admitting that they have no power against their enemies. After studying the names of those enemy armies, I realized that they represent our genetic heritage, our cultural environment, and the forces of the devil. God’s people are told “You will not need to fight. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.” Instead of fighting, they appointed singers who went out in front of their army. What they sang was “Praise the Lord, for His mercy endures forever.” When they focused on the mercy of God, He caused their enemies to defeat each other and Israel prospered from the situation.

How we need to learn that lesson! We wear ourselves out trying to fight evil, within and without. But all the time God has made provision for every deliverance from danger and fear - physically, in the present, and spiritually, forever. He bore your sicknesses and diseases on the cross as well as your sins. When we release those, they too can fly to the cross and leave us to walk in newness of life. “If the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in you, He will give life to your mortal body.” Romans 8:11.

Paul tells us that the weapons of our warfare are not physical but spiritual. We fight by casting down from our mind every thought that would go against the knowledge of God as revealed through Jesus Christ, the Savior, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Praise Him for His aways available, always present mercy as He saves you from all danger - spirit, soul, and body.
He keeps us in perfect peace and harmony when we focus on Him as Savior, here and now.

FOCUS ON HIM 2 - OUR FATHER

2008-06-09T12:58:00.003-04:00

FOCUS ON HIM II
OUR FATHER

If you have been born again from the Spirit of God by receiving Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are a child of God.

The Creator of the Universe is your Father. Paul tells us that we are not to be afraid of Him but to recognize that He is our Abba, our Daddy. (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6)

Once I wrote a humorous spiritual autobiography which I entitled “And God Just Shakes His Head.” It was after I completed it that I realized my picture of God was derived from my own father who often shook his head in disgust at my behavior.

Unfortunately that is usually the case with most of us. Our concept of God is distorted by the relationships we had with our earthly father.

Some of you may have been blessed with a wonderful, nurturing, loving, accepting earthly Daddy. Some of you may have been, as I was, blessed with a loving but demanding Daddy. And some of you may have had an abusive and cruel father – or an absent non-caring father. The type of father you had will influence your perception of your heavenly Father.

We need to all remember that God is the Perfect Father, better than the best Daddy anyone ever had in this earth – loving, forgiving, giving – the one who delights in you just as you are.

He gave you life, He gave His life for you, He fills you with Himself, He never leaves you, He forgives you for every infraction of His rules, He provides for all your physical needs, He provides all the education and training you will allow Him to give. He gives you everything He has as a free gift.

No matter how old you are, He sees you as His little child and loves you very much.

This winter while my husband was in VA hospital there was an older man in the same room who was in a lot of discomfort and had not been able to sleep for days. He said, “I just want to die. And I want to go home. Why stay here to die when I'm so uncomfortable?” The Spirit of the Lord rose up within me and I rushed to his bedside and put my arms around him and asked if I could pray. I already knew he was a Christian and not surprised when he said yes. The Lord had me pray “Father, remind Charlie that you are the Daddy that loves him, that no matter how old he is, you see him as your little boy. Lord, Your Spirit is the Comforter and we ask You to comfort him physically as well as emotionally.” Charlie later told his family “Peace immediately flooded me.” All we knew was that he slept pretty constantly for the next two days. Charlie got to go home for a while before he ended up back in the hospital, and we were able to visit him there three days before he ran into the arms of his heavenly Daddy to live in comfort and joy forever.

When you wake up on Father’s Day this year, before you do anything else, FOCUS ON HIM, the one who sees you as His beloved little child, and say aloud “Happy Father’s Day” to your heavenly Daddy. In fact, it’s not a bad idea to do that every morning. For He is your Daddy who loves you every day, now and forever.

FOCUS ON HIM

2008-06-02T11:40:00.003-04:00

FOCUS ON HIM

Last year I put together a little meditation guide entitled FOCUS ON HIM. The Lord inspired it and has used it to change my life and bring me through some very difficult times. Those who joined me in using it daily have also experienced spiritual growth and comfort.

We’re going to talk about those principles here over the next several weeks, and I invite all readers to share their own insights by posting a comment. Before we begin looking at the different aspects of Himself, I want us to look and comment on the scripture verse that inspired me to write it.

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee,
for he trusteth in thee.
Isaiah 26:3

I believe that Word of promise from God through the prophet Isaiah. When we fix our mind on God, we are looking to Him instead of the world, others, or ourselves for the answers we need in this life. And He will keep or protect us in perfect peace.

The Hebrew word for peace is Shalom. Shalom means connectedness with God, wholeness, completeness, health, prosperity, success. A Hebrew scholar once said the best definition of Shalom is “nothing missing, nothing broken.” When we focus on Him, He keeps us connected to Him and makes us whole and complete in every area of life. No wonder the apostle Paul opened and closed most of his letters with “Grace and Peace unto you.”

God’s undeserved favor and wholeness in every area is given to you as a free gift. Focus on Him!

If you click on the comments, you will see where I've added an exerpt from and a recommendation of Lynn Zuk-Lloyd's new release "Awaken Me: Crying out for more of the Lord.". You can purchase it by going to the link on this page Promise Garden. For some reason, possibly because I'm very new at this, my comment showed up as from Anonymous. But it was me !

Normal?

2008-05-21T15:54:00.006-04:00

Are you normal?

I'm not. Never pretended to be. Well, that's not true. Years ago I tried, back in my teens and twenties, to be normal or at least act it. I finally gave up when I reached my thirties. Somewhere along the way a friend gave me a little sign that still hangs in my kitchen. "I'm not weird, I'm gifted." The truth of that remains to be seen.

I believe God still talks to people. At age sixty-five, I love dolls and paper dolls and children's books, always have and always will. I love England and English authors and know more about English history than I do the history of my own country although I love the USA and have no desire to live elsewhere.

I used to write a humor column for the local newspaper. One day I got a call from an elderly woman who asked "I like your column and it's obvious you are a Christian but you say you've been married three times. How can you justify that?" I answered, "I can't. Ma'am, it's people like me who most need and appreciate a Savior."

Once I said sadly to a neighbor who was a school counselor, "I wish our family was normal." She replied, "There are no normal families. Some of us just put on a better front than others." That comment ministered grace to me - made me feel less weird.

How about you? Are you normal?

You are invited to leave comments or thoughts or questions in the Comment link below. Responses will be posted in a timely fashion. No profanity or questionable material will be posted.