SHOCKING REALITY

Thank you for being a friend!
SHOCKING REALITY
It was about a month after my dad passed away and I returned to work. My boss asked someone to back his SUV out of the warehouse. I was good at maneuvering even the bigger trucks around in tight spaces, so I volunteered. I revved up the engine, looked in the rearview mirror and started to back up…CRUNCH. I was motionless in a state of unbelief for a few seconds—I just couldn’t grasp what had happened. I opened the door and got out, staring at the pavement as I made my way around to the back of the car. I’d misjudged the entrance by a few inches, dented the fender and smashed the tail light. I stood there blurry-eyed with my shoulders slumped over and nothing to say.

Earlier that morning he’d asked me if I was okay after my dad’s passing. I honestly thought that I was and I said I was fine. Now when he came to see what the damage was, I sighed, “I guess I’m not so fine after all.”
My dad’s death affected me in ways I didn’t recognize. I wasn’t quite myself. For the next several months I had to really pay attention to my driving and I had to make an extra effort to not let my mind wander off when I was talking to someone. I wasn’t always successful at it, either. But eventually these side effects disappeared and once again I was my happy self.

At some time or other all of us experience loss and I don’t think we can predict exactly how it will affect us on the inside or how the loss will show up in our attitudes and actions on the outside.

So I was surprised when it happened again. It’s been eight years since my dad died. Then this past November, my sweet little dog Spike died the day after Thanksgiving. I was the one who had to take him to the vet to put him down. I woke up with a feeling of urgency at 2 in the morning and knew it was the day. He was having seizures closer and closer together and having more trouble breathing. I thought I might have to take him to the emergency hospital but decided to wait and take him to his regular vet at 7 when it opened.

I didn’t want to do it, but I knew I had to. He’d been trying to please us and do his normal cute stuff, but I could tell he was having difficulty.
Taking him that morning was awful, just awful. I was as brave as I could be. I took his chubby little self into the vet on the same red leash he had when he first came to us sixteen years ago. At the time he was in the hands of a nine year old neighborhood boy and his dirty-faced sister. “Ma’am could you take this dog? We already have three dogs and my dad won’t let me keep him.” There was just the slightest hesitation on my part, but then, “Yeah, sure.” My roommate Jane and I started toward our front door with a wiggly waggly-tailed brown and white King Charles puppy mix. As we reached the door, I turned back toward the boy and his sister, “Does he have a name?” The boy straightened up, “Oh Yes. His name is Spike.”

That memory was vivid in my mind as I gently held him in my arms on the cold stainless steel table in the vet’s examining room. I tried to be emotionally strong as the vet gave him the last drugs. Spike rested his head down into the curve of my upturned palm and gave me a little kiss. It was as if he was saying thank you. And he was gone. I held back the tears, but it was horrible, really horrible.

It’s been six months and I recently acquired a new cute rescue dog. We actually rescued each other. But I know deep inside I’m still not quite right. Like when my dad passed away, there’s things that are different. I hold it together pretty well but I know me—my humor, my joy, my playful razzing—pretty much diluted and weakened.

However, I KNOW IT WILL CHANGE, BECAUSE I BELIEVE GOD AND I TRUST IN HIM. I’ve been saying “My youth is renewed like the eagle’s” from Psalm 103 almost every day and today could be the day I get my happy whole self back.

In the meantime, I want to thank all of you for sticking with me. Friends who don’t give up on you when you’re going through things and acting kind of weird—they are worth way more than money can buy.

At some time in all our lives we suffer loss. It makes us a little different, a bit more vulnerable, a bit weaker for a period of time, but thank God it’s with His help we can all get through it. I agree with Romans 8: 38-39 “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” And verse 37 “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”

“But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 15:57).

With friends like you and a God like ours we can come out on the other side of loss as more than conquerors and truly victorious.

Love, Carolyn

Be sure to check out my books on Amazon under my name. I have a NEW WINGS sample book with 6 chapters on Commitment. It will be a free download Thursday thru Monday. Enjoy.

MOTHERS WHO PRAY

I know my mom prays for us kids. If it wasn’t for her prayer and believing, we probably wouldn’t have made it this far. She told me that when I was little I once followed a dog down the street and she had to call the police to help find me. Then another time I drank a bottle of her perfume and she had to rush me to the hospital. When I was older I put my mom through even more drama. I remember a time when I was freaking out in an old downtown building in Chicago and my mom drove her VW Beetle forty miles in a snow and ice storm to come get me. My mom has always been a big one for prayer and trusting God.

I want to relate another story about a mother who trusted God. Her name is Hagar. We find her story in Genesis 16, 20 and 21. Abraham was married to Sarah and Hagar was Sarah’s maid. When Sarah couldn’t conceive she came up with the idea that if Abraham could impregnate Hagar, somehow the child would be considered hers. I don’t get it, but that’s what they decided and it caused big problems. As soon as Hagar got pregnant, Sarah was jealous and outraged and treated Hagar horribly. Hagar fled, but on God’s urging, she went back and submitted herself to Sarah’s domination. Relationships may have improved slightly, but there was still bitterness and strife in the household.

Abraham’s entourage travelled through the deserts together as a group for the next thirteen years. By this time Sarah had conceived and given birth to Isaac. All of them lived together in the same group of tents: Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Hagar and Ishmael. (Do we really think our “complicated” family dynamics are so modern?) As we’d expect, there was more drama brewing.

One day when Ishmael was fourteen Sarah overheard him making fun of her son Isaac. It must have been the last straw because she threw him and his mother out. Hagar was devastated. Back then if you were thrown out it wasn’t like you could just go to stay with a friend. These people were nomads. They lived in a tent city, travelling from place to place according to the water supply. There was harsh desert all around them. So when Sarah threw them out, they had to find a way to survive in the wilderness or they’d die. Abraham was able to sneak them one bottle of water and some bread but when that was gone life was over. Hagar wandered in the desert desperately looking for help. But a person can only last about three days without water and there were two of them. They’d come to the end.

“When the water was gone she left the youth in the shade of a bush and went off and sat down a hundred yards or so away. ‘I don’t want to watch him die,’ she said, and burst into tears, sobbing wildly.
Then God heard the boy crying, and the Angel of God called to Hagar from the sky, ‘Hagar, what’s wrong? Don’t be afraid! For God has heard the lad’s cries as he is lying there. Go and get him and comfort him, for I will make a great nation from his descendants.’
Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well; so she refilled the canteen and gave the lad a drink. And God blessed the boy and he grew up” (Gen 21:15-20).

Hagar knew God. She prayed to Him and cried out to Him. She taught her son to do likewise. God “heard the lad’s cries” and saved them both. To mothers this should be a great comfort. When you’ve done your best, you don’t have to be afraid that you haven’t done enough. God thinks you have and He will be there to step in directly for your children when you can’t. GOD IS THERE FOR THEM.

God has given special abilities to mothers and we’re thankful for all of you. Have a great Mother’s Day.

Love, Carolyn

Look for the FREE DOWNLOAD of 7 true stories of GOD’S COMFORT in different situations and in different ways of expressing it: WINGS – SAMPLE D starting Thurs May 15 thru Mon May 19.

BLACK ICE

I was driving to a friend’s house when it started to rain. As I turned into the far lane of the freeway on-ramp, the wheels on my pickup hit the grease in the road and it started to hydroplane just like hitting black ice. I turned into the skid but then I was sliding in the opposite direction and out of control. The whole truck slipped one way then the other, then toward the cement easement.

I heard the forceful sound of crushing metal as my front end smashed into the cement. I heard the garish crunch but I didn’t feel it. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion and I was the spectator watching a movie of myself.

This happened to me before in Michigan when a big truck jackknifed across the freeway right in front of me and I nearly hit it but suddenly stopped only about five feet short, and once when I hit black ice at an intersection in Ohio.

I am convinced that God actually slows down time in these kinds of situations. In Isaiah 38:8 God said, “Behold I will bring the shadow on the sundial ten degrees backward.” That was about forty minutes. God can and will do this for us. And I pray for protection every morning and truly believe that angels surround us so that we don’t get hurt. Psalm 5:12 promises, “with favor thou wilt thou compass him as with a shield.” I believe that with all my heart.

The back end of my truck jutted out into the oncoming lanes. Fortunately there were only a few cars coming and they were able to go around.  I managed to scrape my way across the two lanes and into the hotel parking lot.

A tall good-looking man came over. He asked if I was hurt and I said I wasn’t. He said, “I saw the whole thing and I can’t believe you weren’t hurt and that you can actually drive your car!” He pulled a tool out of his shirt pocket, “I always carry this with me.” It looked like a pair of pliers, but then he began to cut into the metal bumper with it and was able to bend out the bumper and use the tool again to loosen the last bolt holding it on. He put the piece in the bed of my truck. Then he used the tool again to pull the fender away from the wheel so it wouldn’t scrape. After a little effort on his part and testing on my part, I was able to drive freely. All I had was twenty dollars with me, which I gave him and thanked him profusely for the help.

A couple more miracles took place around this incident: my roommate found a place to get parts at the most discounted prices in America and my neighbor offered to put them on for free. What I’ll end up paying is less than half of what I’d pay with a deductible.

I’m not trying to say that all of this was a delight. Not so. After the accident I had to grab my mind and mouth many times to keep out the negatives of worry, stress and despair. But thank God I was able to do it. I’m learning to keep quiet and trust Him even in the negative situations and He comes through every time.

If His eyes are on the sparrow, He will surely watch over me. (Luke 12:6-7)

Love, Carolyn

Check out my books on Amazon under my name and have a great week!

DEVIL GOT PUT DOWN WHEN CHRIST WENT UP

I heard a story where a brother and his sister were riding in the back seat of the family car when all of a sudden the little girl blurted out, “Shut up devil!” Mom turned around and asked, “Why did you say that?” The little girl answered, “Because the devil told me I should break John's leg.”

We all need to do more of what that little girl did and tell the devil to shut up and go back down where he belongs.

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, Matthew tells us Jesus responded with: “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Matt 4:10). Notice that Jesus didn't pray about it. He didn't ask God to get Satan away from him. He spoke directly to the spirit and “then the devil leaveth him” (vs.11). Throughout Jesus' walk on the earth we see that He speaks directly to that which is destructive and tells it to stop or depart. We can do the same.

I looked up the Greek translation for “get thee hence” from Matthew 4:10. It is hupago which comes from ago, which is to go, and hupo which is under, beneath, below, to an inferior position. So hupago is to go below. Jesus commanded Satan to back down.

Before I came to this revelation of sending evil deeply under and beneath, I would cast out devil spirits, but I only cast them away, not under. Demanding that evil take itself below is a much stronger image and agrees with many other passages we find in the Bible. For example there is the record of when Jesus cast the devil spirits out of the man of the Gadarenes. The evil spirits went into the pigs. And then what did they do? They jumped from a higher position on the cliffs to the water below and drowned:

And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand) and were choked in the sea. (Mark 5:12-13 AMP)

When Jesus allowed himself to be crucified, He allowed for every evil that possibly could be inflicted on a man or woman to be inflicted upon himself. That would include any sickness, disease, oppression, worry, guilt, lack, and anything you or I can possibly think of that is destructive to the body, soul, or spirit. Jesus took it all upon Himself. He also was buried with it. And all of that evil and sickness was taken to Hell with Him.

It took tremendous power for God to raise Jesus up out of that filth, every bit of slimy, clawing, insidious evil wanting to pull him back down, or hitch a ride up. The Devil thought he'd destroyed Jesus; he certainly would fight to keep him down there, but he couldn't. When God raised Jesus, all evil was left behind, dropped away, and Jesus was raised as the victorious Christ.

Without oppression, there could be freedom. Without sickness and disease, there could be health. Without the wretchedness of poverty, there could be abundance and generous overflow. Without the claw of addiction there could be the joy of liberty. Without the strain of jealousy, there could be the comfort of love. Jesus took all evil to Hell, left it there and was raised all the way up to Heaven to enjoy the full, unimpaired blessing of God.

The rightful position of believers is above with Christ, and without any of things Jesus took with Him to the grave and to Hell.

Because of “his great love wherewith he loved us,” God “hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:4 and 6), “far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named” (Eph 1: 21).

Romans 6:4 tells us “that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Truthfully, any of the things that Jesus took to the grave and left deep in Hell, should not be in our lives. If they have deceitfully become a part of our lives, we have the perfect right to send them right back down to where they came from. We can walk in the new freedom we have.

God's given us victory and authority in Christ. If devil spirits try to talk us into things that are not the best for us, we can say, like the little girl in the back seat, “Shut up devil!” Or we can say, like Jesus, “Go back below, where you belong! You don't have any right to be here with me!”

Love, Carolyn

Look for the next free download on Thursday: Sample book E – Bible Studies – more exciting than you might think, it includes chapters such as “The Missing Manual,” “Why the Devil Has No Authority,” and “History told in the Heavenlies.” Also a good one on what we can gain from knowing about the O.T. festivals in the chapter on Father’s Day. Available from Amazon.

WHAT DOES A BOAT HAVE TO DO WITH THE CRUCIFIXION?

He sat on the edge of the boat’s railing, gripping the side as he brought his legs over, one at a time. “Is it really Jesus out there?” He questioned himself. “The man did say to come, right?”  Peter took a deep breath…. “Okay I’m going to do this.” Both feet ready and eyes focused only on the figure out there on the water, he lowered himself down and stepped into it. But he didn’t need to flap his arms and try to swim because somehow his toes were the only part of him experiencing the splash of cool water. The first step of faith was to touch something he really didn’t understand, but it worked and he was walking on water to Jesus.

That’s how it is with all spiritual things. We step out in faith first, then the understanding comes later. Especially when it comes to difficult concepts, we just have to forget about trying to wrap our brains around them. Instead, we need to let go and say, “Okay, I believe. And I know the Lord will give me understanding later.” It’s refreshing and takes the burden off.

So, with that said, I want to introduce some truths about Easter that you may not understand yet. Let yourself believe and the Lord will give you the understanding.

It’s important to realize that when Jesus was born, his blood was extraordinary. It was not from his mother. A baby’s blood doesn’t come from the mother and never mixes in the womb. Jesus’ blood came from his father, God, making it spiritual and perfect.

The Bible tells us life is in the blood. So by bleeding out his perfect blood Jesus made his blood, touched by God Almighty, available to anyone who would believe. And this is where we, like Peter, need to step out of the boat and onto the water. Take it by faith. Believe and receive (Mark 11:24).

Jesus bled seven times. Seven is the number for perfection. The seven places cover every aspect of our lives. The first blood was in the garden of Gethsemane. “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:41). This is where Jesus said, “Not my will but thine be done.” Jesus was willing to do God’s will no matter what. His blood gives us the willpower to choose God’s way. Like it says in Philippians 2:13, “to will and to do of His good pleasure.”

The next time Jesus bled was when he was beaten and whipped by the Roman soldiers. The Bible says he was “scourged.” That means he was given 39 lashes with a whip made of leather thongs, each tied with jagged pieces of metal or bone that tore and ripped open strips of flesh on his back. We know that in the end this terrible beating had no effect on him. Having faith in this aspect of the blood makes it so that our bodies can be impenetrable to any sickness or disease. This has been documented with John G. Lake in Africa. They put diseased matter on his hand and it just died.

Also, because God made it so that every cell in the body has the same original DNA, through the blood, the body has the capacity to restore any missing or broken parts. Spirit in the blood can go anywhere in our bodies and change anything physical. This can happen instantaneously (a miracle) or can be a process. The pure qualities of his blood are able to clean out foreign matter, cause growths to wither and die, kill off cancers and arthritis and restore and refresh anything that has been effected by disease or malfunctions. I know this is a lot to take in, but if you read and study the gospels, in faith, God will show you these things.

The third place Jesus shed blood was from internal bruises. Isaiah tells us: “He was bruised for our iniquities.” Jesus was mocked and beaten. There was distress and swelling caused by broken capillaries and dislodged blood beneath the surface of the skin. The other day I got blood drawn. It hurt a little bit and two days later I looked down on my arm and saw a huge bruise. I didn’t even know it was there. That’s how it is with emotional, mental and spiritual bruises, even more than physical ones. Some of those bruises are so deep within us, we don’t even know they’re there, but the blood of Jesus can even remove those. We believe and receive freedom from the deepest wounds.

The fourth place Jesus bled was when they jammed a crown of thorns into his head. This was for our minds. We can think right thoughts and make wise decisions. First Corinthians says “We have the mind of Christ.”

Next they nailed Jesus’ hands and feet to the cross. The blood from his hands is the fifth place Jesus bled. The blood for our hands gives us unique power. Think about what we do with our hands—we touch, write, make things, give things, stop things, clap, lift, and much more. Believing to let the blood from Jesus’ hands pulse in our own can change everything we touch.

Number six is the blood from Jesus’ feet. Matthew 7:14 tells us “strait is the gate and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life.” Though narrow, it is the path of dominion like God says in Deuteronomy 11:24 “Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours.” And like it says in Psalm 23: “He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.”

And lastly, number seven, perfection. When the soldier came to see if Jesus was really dead he took his spear and pierced Jesus through the side—through his belly, his lungs and his heart—making sure his entire life force bled out. That blood was so that we could receive Jesus’ life force when we believe in him. How perfect is that? We receive his holy spirit into our innermost belly, new life in each breath and best of all, not only the ability to receive the Almighty’s love, but to also give it.

I’m so thankful that Jesus made the decision to go through the crucifixion for us. I pray God’s will be done in our lives as well.

Love, Carolyn