Greetings & Blessings Faithful Followers of Team MissionAccess Worldwide! Methinks there are those amongst us who could use a little encouragement right now: can I get a witness? (Yeah, ME! You too?) So come along with me as we light the flame of faith to ignite a Joy Bomb for Our Awesome Savior’s glory with the help of Tauren Wells from his latest book “Joy Bomb: Unleash Jesus’s Explosive Joy For An Extraordinary Life.”
But first let’s look at what Jesus had to say in His very first sermon, which we refer to as the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5: 3-12. In this age of “influencers,” His list of Beatitudes (from the Latin word “beatus,” meaning blessed or happy) may sound a bit strange to us today:
Blessed are: the poor in spirit…
are they who mourn…
the meek…they who hunger and thirst for righteousness…
the merciful…
the clean in heart…
the peacemakers who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness…
Wait, what?!! Who signed up for that? Well if you profess to be a Christian, YOU did! But here’s the deal Good Peeps: Joy Bombs abound when we anchor our faith not in this world but in our Awesome Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Greetings & Blessings Faithful Followers of Team MissionAccess Worldwide! After two decades, one too many plumbing fiascoes, and relentless daily scooter-battered abuse, it became now glaringly apparent that the worn-out carpeting in our home must be replaced. Having secured all the necessary means to achieve this goal, we were then faced with a mind-blowing directive: EMPTY THE SHELVES! What seemed like a normal, everyday request become for me a Herculean task. I confess: that stuff represents far more of my self-identity than I care to admit. So much so that my realization of what’s really going on inspired a poem entitled “Empty Shelves” that you may be able to relate to:
The ”stuff”! It must be cleared away!
(For better “stuff” to come?)
Nooks and crannies, don’t delay
Let’s strip your surface dumb
“But that’s my…” I gasp aloud
“Restore it NOW! ASAP!”
Do not remove the sacred shroud
That hides the tender trap
They say I’m more than just my stuff
“It’s what’s inside that matters!”
Whatever. Still, I find it rough
To let go of the tatters.
In Hebrews 4: 12 ESV it says: “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Oh precious Peeps! Whether it’s fig leaves, overstuffed shelves, or whatever your clever disguise, let His Word strip you of your trappings, heal you, restore you and set you free indeed.
Greetings & Blessings Faithful Followers of Team MissionAccess Worldwide! Let’s explore a trend called “dechurching” which accounts for a mass exodus from churches small and large nationwide over the past 25 years.
However, this did not happen overnight. In fact, in 1972 41% of Americans attended church every week. But by 2021, that declined to 24%. But wring not your hands nor gnash your teeth in fear! Rather, let us lift our hands in praise for the opportunity set before us to be active participants in the rebirth of an even more powerful, personal and persuasive Church Family worldwide in the future.
In the book “The Great Dechurching: Who’s Leaving, Why Are They Going, and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back?” authors Jim Davis, Michael Graham, and Ryan Burge offer encouraging news to help reverse this trend. In fact, for 51% of those surveyed, it may be as simple as asking them to church.
So… Let’s ask them! Hebrews 10:24-25 ESV encourages us to:
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
Greetings & Blessings Faithful Followers of Team MissionAccess Worldwide! As we ponder what lies ahead on this whacky road we’ve trodden together, let’s talk FREEDOM (one o’ my fav topics). But where does it come from? And what does it mean to be truly free?
(Hint: gotta go to the Bible for that):
JOHN 8: 36 ESV “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
Consulting a commentary from scholars far more learned than I is always advisable, so here from Pulpit Commentary on biblehub.com:
“The incarnation of the Son of God as a veritable Son of man emancipates the soul fettered by the tyranny of nature and baffled by the mastery of time and sense, inasmuch as it discloses the august majesty of its own origin. Essential freedom accrues to him who knows that sin is pardoned, that death is vanquished, that the prince of this world is cast out.”
Bottom line: we are free.
OK, so we are free. Free from what? “Free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8: 2). What’s that? According to Romans 6: 23 ”The wages of sin is death.” But what does that mean? That’s referring to not just physical death but ETERNAL separation from God. That alone should cause us to tremble! However, in our current post-modern culture, the fear of God has largely been removed which we see play out daily in increasingly disturbing ways.
I confess to writing in a journal not so very long ago that “I want to do what I want to do when I want to do it!” Oh precious Peeps! That’s NOT freedom! In fact that’s the very definition of bondage. But the Good News is that while we are yet in the Land of the Living, there remains an opportunity for us to share the freedom offered lovingly to all who choose to believe in the One who sets us Free Indeed.
Greetings & Blessings Faithful Followers of Team MissionAccess Worldwide! Meet J. I. Packer, who went Home to be with the Lord in 2020, full of years at the age of 93, here speaking on Personal Holiness:
What a timely message as we enter a brand New Year! May I be so bold as to suggest that we focus not just on the principles but rather on The Joy of Holiness. Many times throughout the Old and New Testament we hear echoes of holiness but find it first as a command here:
44 For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, because I am holy. (LEV 11: 44 NASB)
Let’s look more closely at two key words:
#1 CONSECRATE: to devote to a purpose with or as if with deep solemnity or dedication.
#2 HOLY: dedicated or consecrated to God or a religious purpose; sacred.
Note that “holy” is repeated twice, signifying its importance to Our Awesome Lord & Savior. What better time than now to recommit our hearts, our minds, and our lives and unleash the Joy of Holiness exceeding abundantly!
That was none other than Sean Feucht of #LetUsWorship, an evangelistic firestorm launched to combat the tyrannical 2020 Cali lockdowns aimed to silence our God-given right to worship and praise our Awesome Lord. Born humbly on the Golden Gate bridge, lo and behold just over a year later #LetUsWorship rang in the New Year with a mighty roar on the freedom-loving shores of Miami, Florida.
According to Sean, so far they have shared the Good News of Jesus Christ with nearly 500,000 people nationwide and have witnessed 40,000 professions of faith! And they are just getting warmed up.
My prayer is that we see God’s magnificent hand orchestrate a Happy New Revival right here in Dallas, TX! Here is our focus verse:
ISAIAH 22: 22 NASB
“Then I will put the key of the house of David on his shoulder;
When He opens, no one will shut,
When He shuts, no one will open.”
I truly believe that Dallas is ripe for revival, but the key is with us, with our hearts.
Revival starts with our personal confession of how we are simply falling short of the Glory of God with a sincere recommitment to repent and pursue holiness at all costs in the future. May our humble prayers unleash a Revival that spreads farther and faster than any virus indeed!
Greetings & Blessings Faithful Followers of Team MissionAccess worldwide! This message I truly believe is a good and perfect gift downloaded directly into my sleepytime brain to encourage both me and you during even these the most perplexing of times inded.
Let me explain: to combat my ever-progressing MS I have been on the Coimbra protocol (high-dose Vitamin D to help treat autoimmune disease) since Summer 2019. Though I decided to discontinue this somewhat controversial treatment, I have in fact noticed some noticeable improvements including lucid dreaming. And praise God I had a doozy!
But before I share the dream let’s look at one of my favorite verses found in the Book of James:
James 1: 17 NASB
17 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.
I want to focus on just two words, the first being: GIFT. Now when I think of “gift” I think of a brightly wrapped box with a big bow and a card with my name on it!
But the second word is: EVERY which appears twice. Sometimes His best gifts come in far, far different packages than we expect which Laura Story captured so well in her song “Blessings.” Or like my dream may have no physical wrapping at all yet seems cloaked in mystery nevertheless. Ah but what a joy when our Awesome Lord creates something just for You! And though we just don’t necessarily understand we can take incredible comfort in knowing it was meant for us and for us to share.
So here’s my dream along with a hopeful interpretation I believe the Lord laid on my heart:
I dreamt that my Beloved husband Larry and I were riding together probably on DART when it came time for me to exit alone and proceed with some predetermined task. And though it was dark, I felt no fear until I encountered a flashing neon DETOUR sign ahead. My heart sank and though in my scooter I navigated my way through a gauntlet of construction DANGER roping to flag down a worker donning full reflective bling. “What am I supposed to do?” I anguished helplessly. The worker, who was a petite Hispanic woman, answered me confidently “God will take care of you!” and I awoke amazed.
WOW whatever was all that about?!! Well since the time that I dreamt it I truly believe that our Awesome Lord gently laid this comforting interpretation on my heart:
Peeps you may feel that you were just going about your business when BAM suddenly you found yourself alone in a strange place surrounded by flashing-neon danger. But yet again Praise God He was right there waiting to protect and to guide you through it! And though it may seem neither good nor perfect at the time, you can rest assured that He is there every good & perfect step of the way.
Greetings & Blessings Faithful Followers of Team MissionAccess worldwide! This season I am thrilled to bring you a message that I believe was hand-picked by our Awesome Lord to not just pick you up temporarily with a spiritual sugar high but to truly equip and enable you to fulfill the purpose for which you were created.
First, a little context for our scripture focus found in Mark 4: 39:
By this time Jesus has assembled His team, performed some miracles and done some teaching. Now He is “fixin’ to” (as we say in TX) take them on their very first Road Trip (or in this case, Sea Cruise). But instead of a little karaoke with His Team on the Lido deck, Jesus opts for turning in early for some well-deserved ZZZZs when a killer storm explodes overhead! Terrified, they rush below deck to rouse Jesus from a deep sleep lamenting that they are all…gonna…die! And accuse Him of not caring.
39 And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. (MARK 4: 39 KJV)
I chose the KJV (King James Version) because even my go-to translations simply did not capture the gravitas of this pivotal event. Because that is my hope and prayer: that you grab hold of the power of His peace in your lives!
Oh precious Peeps! We who are made in His image and believe that He lives within us have that same power to calm not just the storms in our lives but to unleash its power to transform the lives of others just like Jesus did. So Unleash it today indeed!
Greetings & Blessings Faithful Followers of Team MissionAccess! Allow me to share a very special memory about my grandmother who left me a legacy that continues to empower me a lifetime later.
Meet Katherine “Katy” Shea (aka “Glamma”) pictured here in her fashionable home in the tiny town of Salem, OH that could easily have been featured in Better Homes & Gardens indeed! But it was not just her home but she herself was a Fashionista in her own right wearing an outfit that could easily pass for haute couture six decades later.
But she left me something even more timeless: in fact over time it is a verse that has quite literally held me and continues to hold me together:
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.
(Proverbs 3: 5-6 NASB)
When I started really feeling the effects of my MS I used to walk my pups in the early morning singing these words to myself with a silly little tune that still sparks a flicker of hope that even now encourages me deep, deep in my soul.
So let me suggest a Life Application to you and to our nation:
Suffice to say many of us may have been less than thrilled with the outcome of the last election. But at some point Precious Peeps we need to trust in the Lord no matter what. So switch off the TV and power down the smartphone and trust God to straighten things out.
Greetings & Blessings Faithful Followers Of Team MissionAccess Worldwide!
Our Message this season resulted from A Series of Fortunate Events that led me directly to Laura Story’s most excellent book When God Doesn’t Fix It. Who hasn’t heard her Grammy Award-Winning classic Blessings? But not until I read her book did I discover the Blessings In Disguise behind Laura’s story.
Shortly after their marriage her husband Martin Elvington began having medical issues that resulted in a diagnosis of brain tumor. Although they rushed to remove the malignant tumor he was left with permanent brain damage along with short-term memory loss requiring extensive retraining on simply how to live.
This “tragedy” however launched them into a journey of discovery of God’s plan & purpose for their lives that looked nothing like what they had envisioned but rather far exceeded their wildest dreams.
So try this: do what Laura does! Replace your inevitable “Why God?” with “Show Me HOW God?” Prepare to be amazed at how Our Awesome Lord can help turn even your deepest pain into His highest joy for Our Good & His Glory worldwide.
