Author: admin

Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.    Matthew 19:6

With a new chapter of my life opening after the passing of my late wife Becky on January 12, 2015, I sought God for his direction. The caregiver chapter with her lengthy illness was closed. Now, my desire was to get my life back to a focus on ministry. I spoke with the Lord saying: “Lord, if I am to remain single the rest of my days, fine. I know you give grace for that. But Lord, if you know I need a companion, here is my list of what I desire (I made a list of things I desired in a companion), and I am asking, let’s get it on quickly. I don’t want to have to spend a lot of time searching, dating, and all that stuff.” I laid the list and the request out before him and went about the business of making contacts with different pastors and churches in an effort to establish relationships for support of future gospel outreach and mission work.

In this process of making contacts with pastors in the local region, on May 5, 2015, I met Barbara Allred, Pastor of The Lighthouse Church in Benton, AR. I shared my vision with her and we became acquainted. In subsequent meetings God worked through her to free me from some things in my life that I did not need to be carrying, for which I am deeply grateful. Quickly we found much in common. We continued to see each other with a mutual friendship quickly developing into a deep and abiding love and respect for each other. With the revelation of God joining two together as one in marriage, we have determined that we would like to spend the rest of our days on earth walking with Jesus together to fulfill all his assignments for our lives. God favors having a wife, calling it “a good thing” (Proverbs 18:22). The celebration of our union together for this purpose will take place July 18, 2015 at 5 pm at The Lighthouse Church in Benton, AR. That is 75 days after first meeting her. God is a prayer answering God. The good news is that through the cleansing blood of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, every person has access to God and his plan for one’s life. God will do a quick work, a beautiful work, and one that is abundantly above all we are able to ask or think. He is worthy of all our love, because He loves each one of us and desires good for us all with all his heart.

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Stay in love. Don’t get out of it. If you will do this, your love will fully develop, in which there is a deep settled peace and rest. There is no fear in fully developed love. Fear has torment and unrest. As you continue in and abide in love, fear and distrust will lose its grip and confidence and tranquility of heart will grow. Fully developed love gives you a calm boldness in the face of adversities and a resoluteness of purpose in your daily life which gives you strength to do those things that need to be done for the good of all. Through the love of God operating in us, we are able to see beyond the obstacles and see what the Savior can do for all situations and circumstances, and seeing that, we can give ourselves in that love to be that ready and willing vessel for him to work through all to bring the needed solution. Stay in love, and see the solution. (Thoughts from 1 John 4: 7-21; 5: 1-5)

Tethered with this is John 15: 5-10, especially verse 9 – same author, same line of thought: “…He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing…As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.” It is interesting to note that the words “dwell” in 1 John 4, “abide” and “continue” in John 15: 5, 9 are all the same Greek word meaning “to stay.” The Bible says God is love, so if we abide or stay in Jesus, then we are abiding or staying in God, and this is one and the same as continuing in love, and if we do this, our love grows and matures, and fear, torment, and distrust diminishes. This is good news! There is a way to overcome the blows and the lashes and the traps and the temptations, and the doubts, despair, disillusionment, and the defeat that our experiences in the world have laid on us and sent our way. We don’t need to be gullible, but we can stay in love, in God’s love, and in believing his Word, and live out the way of abundant life and liberty in our particular situation. We can overcome our failures and our fears and rise up to stand in the station in which we find ourselves, and fulfill the destiny to which we are called. We do it by staying in love, continuing in God’s love, abiding in Jesus. 2-13-15

Jesus did a wonderful thing when he poured the Holy Spirit out upon his followers. Their direct, flesh and bone, right-before-their-eyes connection with God had finished his earthly work and had disappeared back into heaven. The problem for the disciples was that Jesus, their leader, their helper, their instructor, their problem solver, their comforter, and their source of wisdom and supernatural power was now gone! So, in obedience to Jesus’ instruction, they huddled together in prayer and waited indefinitely for the Helper that Jesus said he would give (John 16:7). Well, it happened on the day of the Jewish celebration of harvest called Pentecost. And boy, did it happen! Those folks got filled with the Spirit and fire of God and they came out of the chute bucking and snorting! They were no longer intimidated by religious protocol and political correctness, and, by threats on their very lives. No longer did they hide in a room somewhere. They boldly came out in all public places, in the Jewish synagogues, in the streets, in the market places, in surrounding cities, and in far-away places, preaching the good news of Jesus Christ with signs and wonders, reaping a mighty harvest of souls for Jesus. The turning point in their lives was when they gave themselves to be filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1 and 2).

The book of Acts is a short overview of the early church in which there are at least forty references to the Holy Spirit. Listening to and yielding to the leadership of the Holy Spirit was an integral part of the early church, and, the source of their supernatural power. Jesus had taught and demonstrated before his disciples that yielding to the Holy Spirit in and upon one’s life is allowing God himself to lead, help, instruct, solve problems, comfort, give wisdom, and demonstrate supernatural power for the good and benefit of all. It was through the agency of the Holy Spirit that the early church continued to be in direct contact with Jesus to carry out his ministry in the earth. Today, it is through the agency of the Holy Spirit that Jesus can continue to walk in our midst in a wonderful way. It just takes a yielded believer. 2-20-15