The High Calling of God

Often when I pray, the Lord gives me a word picture of what He is trying to tell me. Some would call it a vision. Whatever the case, it is one of His ways of communicating with me. For the last month He kept showing me a mountain. It was broad at the base and became narrower the farther up it went. All along the mountain were paths going up to the top. The top of the mountain was almost to a point. As the paths went higher they got narrower and I could see more obstacles along the path the further up they went. Then I felt the Lord speak to me to that I had a choice. I could stay along the base, where the grass was green and lush and the path was broad and didn’t have as many obstacles in the way. Or I could choose to go higher up the mountain. I knew there would be a cost to go up higher. The path became very narrow and there were rocks and boulders along the way, deep ravines to travel through. But- the one thing that caught my attention the most was that “my” path was on the other

The Lord gave me this phrase several years ago when I was making a card for a friend. It seems like at this time of the year we do more thinking about the love that God had for us. He had so much love that He sent His son Jesus Christ into the world to save the world from its sin. That is a lot of love. I am not a parent, but I do understand the word LOVE and I think I would find it almost impossible to give up my child or anything that I dearly loved for someone else. But God gave Himself through His Son Jesus Christ to a world that was lost in sin so that we might have a chance to be a part of His great love. With all the worldly stress and tumult that is around us, sometimes it is difficult to remember just why we are celebrating Christmas. We have to remember and stay focused on Jesus Christ no matter what situations or trials we may be facing. Whether things seem “good” or “bad” right now, the fact is that God loved us so much that He sent His son. He certainly showered down Hi

The “Christmas Season” has been upon us for several weeks now. I am sure you have heard much talk about Christmas trees, what kind to get- artificial, real, how big or how small. Remember the aluminum ones that came out in the 60”s? My brothers and I were so glad that our parents did not ever get one. When we lived in the country my brothers and/or dad would simply go out to the woods and chop one down. Later when we moved to town, if was a little more difficult to find a nice one. As I was studying my Bible last week I came across some trees that the Lord said He would plant in our wilderness. In Isaiah 41:17-20 God was speaking to Israel and assuring them of His help during a barren desolate time in their history. He mentioned how He was going to bring rivers and pools of water into barren, desolate areas. He promised them that He was going to plant several different types of trees. I did a little study of those trees and it was pretty amazing. The cedar tree was a juniper tree a

When my husband first started pastoring we had services in the basement of our home. My father-in-law made a large sign to put out in the front of our house giving the name of the church and the times and days of services. This went on for quite awhile without any problems. Then one day my husband received a letter in the mail from the city stating that we had to remove our church sign because our house was not up to code to contain a church. We were instructed to take down our sign. It was true that we were not handicapped equipped but the church was in prayer to obtain a building in God’s time. My husband complied with the city’s request and he removed the sign. After some prayer, the Lord gave my husband an idea. He went about making another sign. It simply read, “Jesus Is Still The Answer”. He put that sign out where the church sign had been. Many were the good comments that we received about it even from unbelievers. One person started attending our services and at first thoug