“Who can touch your toes?” asked Pastor Josiah. A few of the people raised their hands. He
admitted that he could only reach to his mid shins unless he kept on practicing. On Saturday
night, Todd White said that his wife put their first offering in the plate. It was $5. The next week it was $10; next $15. That was three hundred per cent in three weeks. Pastor said that if you keep stretching, you will be able to reach things you could not reach before. That goes for tithing, faith, and belief in God’s love for you.
Todd White bounced up the platform. He was day thirty-three in his forty day water fast. He
woke up at four a.m. and fed on the Word for three hours. He was filled up with the Living Bread and Living Water. Too often we feed on the world and taste test Jesus. Todd asked,
”Are you looking at Jesus? Intimacy means ‘in to me, see?’” He is living in you. Do you see
Him?
Todd has lived in freedom for twenty years. Before meeting Jesus and accepting Him as Lord
and Savior, Todd was a drug addict, a drug dealer, had felonies, $14000 in court costs, was
diagnosed with schizophrenia and was bipolar. He had been through many treatments. He
stated,”I had a lifetime subscriptions of issues.”
Todd posed as a police officer and told the drug dealer to get out of the car, read him his rights, and then stepped on the gas. From ten feet away the dealer shot fourteen rounds into the car. Todd heard a voice say,”I took these bullets for you.” Todd looked around to see who was talking. His body had no wounds; his car had no bullet holes in it. Todd knew that he was saved but to what.
He looked up churches in the phone book and found Dan’s church. He drove there, and Dan
Mohler shared Jesus with him. Todd “incorporated” Jesus into his life but did not make Him his Lord and Savior. For five and half months Jesus was part of his life but not his Lord. That made Todd a target for satan because he was not 100% for Jesus.
Todd said,”Let Him fillet your heart with truth.” Your value is the price Jesus paid for you. The father of lies, satan, wants you to dwell on your past sins, but if you have repented your sins, they are as far as the east is from the west. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you are free. Do you believe that word from the Word or do you let your past sins haunt you. He who knew no sin became sin for you. He took your sin. Do you realize your value? He paid it all for you! What does all mean? 100% He paid for you. He was on the tree, buried, went to hell for three days and rose from the pit to defeat death for you. That is how much He values you. Do you live as a sinner or a son or daughter of the king? To whom are you listening, the world or the Savior? If you keep the mind of man, you live in the past. Stop being conformed to the world, but be ye transformed to the renewing of your mind.
In Luke 7, the woman came with an expensive jar filled with costly perfume. Jesus was at a
Pharisee’s house. She was not permitted there, but that did not stop her. She entered, broke the jar open, and poured the perfume on his feet as she wiped his feet with her tears and her hair. The Pharisees were appalled and thought that her actions were abhorrent. Jesus knew their thoughts. He knew their reasoning and confronted them on their thoughts. Jesus shared a parable about a man who called in his debtors. To the one who owed much the rich man forgave much. To the one that owed little he forgave little. Which one was most forgiven? Which one was most repentant and thankful. Yes, so was that woman. The Pharisees, the religious ones, wanted to take away her joy. The Lord acknowledged her faith and compassion for Him. “No one has the right to take away the Lord’s joy,” commented Todd. May we be ones who encourage the joy in others instead of judging and criticizing them. Also from Luke 7, we can learn to remember how much we have been forgiven. Think of the parable of the splinter in the eye of the other man and not log in your own. Take care of that log of your own.
The power of the testimony is the past life has died and a new creature is made. What the Lord did for you, He can and is willing to do for others. He wants you and me to live like His son or daughter. If I fail to pursue in that truth, I miss out. In the garden, he was a snake. In the end he is a seven headed dragon. He got that way because we fed him and believed his lies since satan is the great deceiver and father of lies. He is also the god of this world. When you conform to this world you are conforming to the lies, deceptions of and in the world. Too often we live by fearing man and not offending man.
About the Word, it is a two edged sword and it is the guide by which we can live. Why look to another source to learn of the Lord? According to James 3, we have two kinds of wisdom:
“But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts
do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such ‘wisdom’ does not
come from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.” James 3:15
“But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then
peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good
fruit, impartial and sincere.” James 3:17 (NIV)
Are you conformed to this culture or heaven? What type of fruit do you have for people to take? Will they be led to hell or heaven? Whatever seems right to man is it of God? Does that decision honor the world or God?
What about trials?”Trials come to take the world out of you,” stated Todd. The storms came to the house on the rock and on the sand. Which one still stood? The one on the rock withstood the storm. The storm can help shape you to be more like Jesus as long as you are anchored on the Rock.
Finally, Psalm 103 spoke loudly to Todd (and it was my mother’s and grandfather’s favorite
psalm):
“Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits-
who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love
and compassion
who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is
renewed like the eagle’s.” Psalm 103:1-6 (NIV)
May we praise Him and worship Him who paid His life for us. We are His beloved son or
daughter. Because we know and live that truth, may we be salt and light in this trial-filled world and may we live with all that He has for us.
Submitted by Larry and Annette Linthicum
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