admin – Page 7 – Jackie Calhoun

Tell the Dogs to Get Into the Truck

Rolling down the interstate, I pulled over at the Flying J truck stop to gas up. While I was gassing up at the pumps, I observed a rather large lady, who was parked in a space in front of the building, trying to get one of two of her large dogs into the back seat of her truck. Talking and pointing was not working and pushing and pulling was not working. Finally, with much struggle, getting the front two legs in first, she sort of pushed and pulled and dragged the dog up into the seat of the truck. The other dog was standing by watching the whole show. He was not going in for her either. A man, I’m assuming her husband, walks out of the building and around to her and the dog, and says something. The dog hesitates. He says something again, and by appearances it was said with more sharpness. The dog promptly obeyed and jumped in the seat of the truck.

I think we all understand that we, the people of God, are the hands, the feet, the body, and the very presence of Jesus on the earth today. We also need to understand that we are the expression of faith and the voice of Jesus on the earth today, too. We carry his authority by faith, but we must give expression to that authority if it is going to be effective. Jesus said to speak to the mountains, the dogs of life, the obstacles, the things needed, in order for them to manifest, move, or change. We must know our place of operation in life and voice the authority that is given to us. We are the officers who give the orders. In the morning when I first get up, the first stretch that I do of my series of stretches, is that I get on my knees and bow down with my face to the floor to start loosening my back. It’s also a good position to submit my life to the Lord Jesus for that day with praise, thanksgiving, and making my requests known unto him. Here’s a good way to pray: “Thank you, Lord, for the faith, righteousness, and authority of Jesus put to my account, the wonderful gift that I did not work for. I praise you, and I speak to…“ and, start naming your mountains, and telling them the way it is going to be. You are not asking, you are telling them the way it is going to be. The man did not ask the dog to get into the truck, he told him with authority. Let the man, Christ Jesus who lives in you, do the speaking. You just give voice to him. He does not ask, beg, or plead. He speaks with authority. Tell the dogs to get into the truck. They obey the man of authority. See things move, change, and fall into place in good time. Give God all the praise, glory, and honor.

The Beautiful Archway

We have a seven foot wide metal archway in the middle of our back yard with a knock out rose bush on each side. Extending on each side out from the archway for seven feet is a rectangular brick flower bed the same thickness of the archway, about two feet wide. In those beds, along with the rose bushes, we have planted two more rose bushes that are started from cuttings, along with some petunias, marigolds, periwinkle, and surprise. “Surprise” are those plants coming up, but I’m not sure what. Next to the archway, at the base of the rose bushes, I have planted morning glory to climb up the archway and decorate it with beautiful foliage and flowers. Everything is coming along great, and the more sunny days we get, with the feeding that I am giving it, it will flourish. However, if the morning glory is going to add its glory to the archway, care must be taken to keep the eager, spiraling tendrils out of the rose bush and climbing right on up the archway. If not tended to every few days, you will have a lot of unwrapping to do in a thorny rose bush in order to get it going up the metal structure. If it was not tended to at all, it would be all wrapped up in the rose bush, never reaching its full potential of “glory” adding its beauty to the ornamental metal archway. By keeping it tended to, we will have beautiful green foliage with blue and light purple blossoms enhancing the off white metal archway. This is what we can enjoy for our morning coffee view.

Just as the morning glory is created to reach out and spiral around something that takes it up, so our spirit, our inner man, is created to reach out and wrap around something that will take it up. As the roots go down, the arms go up to embrace that which will offer support for going to the heights so the beauty of the creator can be seen by all. It is when we get all tangled up in the low-lying adjoining bushes that we fail to attain unto that for which we are designed. What Jesus did for us by offering himself as the perfect sacrifice to qualify us to receive God’s life, God’s presence, and God’s blessings, is the structure, the beautiful archway, that will take us to the heights for all to see the work of our Creator and Savior. With confidence, we can reach out to, and cling to, and wrap ourselves around Jesus, and know that he will provide the qualification and strength to carry us throughout our life and beyond. Our part is to make those daily adjustments to keep ourselves clinging to him and not allowing ourselves to be side tracked to anything less than the best for our life. In him, through his Word and Spirit, are life, healing, strength, and confidence. Stay wrapped around Jesus.

If We Do Our Part

Out of sight, out of mind is an often used truism that I have heard all my life. This is especially true concerning home maintenance. I was in the handy man home repair business for many years and it is roof issues and under-the-house issues that go unnoticed and unknown until problems start arising. Then there is an investigation. Preventative maintenance with periodic inspections is a good policy. Most of us don’t do that. We wait for a problem to arise before we look in to it. One frequent, usually yearly issue that I had to address, was roof leaks due to the accumulation of leaves in a valley of the roof or some other place that would catch debris. When the debris builds up, it creates a dam that catches the water so that it finds its way through the shingles down onto the roof deck. If this continues for years, with the accumulated debris never removed, the wood deck of the roof rots and the water finds its way down into the house. A melting volume of snow will do the same thing with some roofs making a one-time leak. The simple solution is to keep the roof valleys and places that catch debris clean. After the leaves fall is a good time to have your roof valleys cleaned. Give yourself a preventative maintenance Christmas present – have all your valleys cleaned before Christmas each year. You are not doing it so others can see your clean roof and say “Oh what a clean roof they have!” No, you are doing it for your own good and benefit.

Our walk with the Lord is much like maintaining a house. If we stay clean before God, we can weather the storms of life with confidence. The Bible says “Beloved if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight” (1 John 3:21, 22). Six times the writer speaks of God’s faithfulness in Psalms 89. God is faithful to his Word. If we are doing our part, he will do his part – without fail. We trust doctors, we trust lawyers, we trust the chair we sit on – don’t you think we can trust God? Yes! It’s embarrassing to even ask the question. If the roof is made correctly, and we keep it clean, it won’t leak, we are covered, we are protected. If a limb falls into our life and knocks a hole in our roof, if we are paying attention to things on a daily basis, we call the fixer – upper right away and get the problem resolved. Jesus gave his life so that we can have a heart change, receive the life of God within us, and keep the debris out of our life. Let God show you what you need and take the blood of Jesus for cleansing. God is faithful to help.

How To Shut The Door To Sickness And Death

Shut That Door! 10 March 2021

When kids are playing in and out of the house, the question is often heard, “Who left the door open?”, or, “Shut that door! You are letting flies in!” When kids are playing, they often forget and leave doors open. Let’s not be like children.

The Word of God plainly tells through the Apostle Paul of an open door to sickness and death. Let’s look at the scripture that many people take as meaning that if you take communion with sin in your life it will sicken or kill you.

Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.
For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.

The Lord’s supper is given as a positive reminder for us of what we have in Christ. It is given as a life giving lesson by serving to remind us of what we have in Christ. We are to examine ourselves to make sure we are understanding and applying the word and work of the Lord Jesus to our personal lives and situations. To truly reverence the Lord is to embrace his death as payment for our sins and embrace his suffering as payment for our sicknesses in our personal lives.

Paul said, “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep”. The “cause” is not because we are partaking of the Lord’s supper. In fact, if we are struggling with sin or sickness in our life, it is good to partake of the Lord’s supper as a confession and identification with the Lord for deliverance from sin and sickness. The “cause” has to do with the meaning of “unworthily” and “not discerning the Lord’s body”. “Unworthily” in the Greek means “irreverently.” It means we do not show worth and respect to who Jesus is and what he has done for us. “Discerning” in the Greek means “to separate thoroughly…to discriminate…hesitate.” From this we can see that failure to spend time to properly understand and personally apply what Jesus did for us is the open door to allowing sin and sickness in our lives.

Whether we are partaking of the Lord’s supper or not, if we are not understanding and applying to our personal lives that which Jesus did for us, then we are leaving the door wide open to any sickness that might come along. The act of partaking of the Lord’s supper does not condemn us. It is failure to understand and apply the Word that condemns us to defeat, failure, and sickness.

If we reverence, if we show worth and respect to, if we understand and apply the blood sacrifice of Jesus so that we turn from all sin, then we are not judged with the world for sin. If we reverence, if we show worth and respect to, if we understand and apply the broken body of Jesus so that we accept the Word that says by his stripes we are healed, then we are not condemned with the world to be sick. We are to choose to believe the truth of God’s Word to change things as we are faced with personal sin and sickness. This is reverencing, showing worth and respect, to the things of God. This is conducting ourselves “worthily” or “reverently.” Failure to believe and apply God’s Word is conducting ourselves “unworthily”.

Communion is our statement of agreement with Jesus Christ on our behalf that we are one with him in his perfect, accomplished work in spite of our weaknesses. It is our statement of identity with him instead of identity with sin and sickness. If we are not taking a bold stand with him in this way of identification, we are leaving the door wide open for the “flies” of weakness, sickness, and even death to reign. We are to get understanding and “shut that door” by daily application of the Word to our lives with praise and thanksgiving for victory over sin and sickness .

We apply the Word by embracing it as God’s promise to us personally and speaking it out loud into our life and situation. We “speak to the mountain” in faith with our hearts clear of any unforgiveness, believing those things we say will come to pass, knowing God is faithful to his Word. With this Jesus said the things we desire, when we pray, believe we receive them, and we shall have them (Mark 11:22-26).

We won’t be like children. We shut the door and keep the flies out of God working in our lives for abundance of life and health.

Jackie Calhoun, Lighthouse Church, Benton, AR

Trees of Righteousness

At one time I operated a greenhouse during the years of being landscaper at Ouachita Baptist University. In that operation, in order to grow strong, healthy, plants, the first thing you need is a loose, fine, potting soil that is slightly moist so that it will receive the moisture – good ground. If the soil is too dry, like powdery dry, it won’t receive water. The surface will be wet, but it won’t soak in. There must be plenty of sunlight, but not so much to burn things up – filtered sunlight, hence, the black mesh covering of the greenhouse. There needs to be plenty of air circulation to keep mold and mildew from setting up in the moist environment. There needs to be regular feeding, but not over feeding. If the conditions are kept in an optimal way, the plants are strong and insects and diseases are normally not a major problem. During those years I do not remember using insecticides and fungicides in the greenhouse, and certainly not on a regular basis.

The Bible refers to God’s people as “trees of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:3). For us to be good strong plants in a spiritual sense, we must have good soil. We should be humble and loose and pliable in heart, not so proud and set in our knowledge and ways that we are resistant to admitting to wrong and being in error. We need to be open to learn and receive new things and discern that they are things according to the Word of God. That is good, fine, soil. We need plenty of daily exposure to the Son so that we don’t get spindly and weak. Plenty of Son light causes our trunks to grow strong and thick and a good root system developed to support a long season of beautiful blooms. The Spirit is the breath of God. Living daily giving place to the presence of the Holy Spirit is good air circulation to keep down fungal growth in our spiritual life due to stagnation of air movement. Expressing praise, worship, and thanksgiving out loud in your own language and in the language of the Holy Spirit keeps that spiritual air moving in the house for strength and health. Regular feeding on the Word, the Son, trusting the Spirit to reveal the greatness and majesty of Jesus, is the food that brings strength and resistance to all the attacks of the spiritual “insects” that would try to devour your life. Leaves catch the sun turning it into food (photosynthesis). Insects eat leaves thus stopping us from feeding on the Son. When we fail to feed on the Son, Jesus, we have no strength of life. Jesus said man lives by the Word of God. The Word is our life source. To be strong spiritually and physically: fine, moist, enriched, loose soil, Son light, feeding on the Word, and good air circulation, keeping the presence of the Holy Spirit moving in our life. Good, strong, healthy, trees of righteousness.

Like a Duck to Water

Living on a farm, and having ducks, I know first hand that you don’t need to teach a duck to swim. Those little fellas, soon after hatching, take to water like motorized little yellow, fuzzy, corks bobbling around in the water. Little farm animals and fowl are cute little critters, and it is fun to watch their antics and playfulness as they jump into life full force. A few weeks back Barb and I spent at least 12 hours over a period of days assembling a swing set for the little ones to play on in the back yard. Upon completion the grand kids came over, and I was reminded, “like a duck takes to water” kids don’t have to be taught to play on the swing set. Those kids made a bee line for that swing set and knew exactly what to do with it. Then, with all the kids over during our church Easter pot luck and party, the same truism was played out again. My thoughts were, “It was all worth it. Following those directions point-by-point and the frustration involved in making some parts line up together to get the perfect fit – it was all worth it.” Those kids were all over that thing enjoying it to the fullest to Barb’s and my delight.

The Bible says “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5: 17). We all are at different levels of knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ, and the Bible says we go from faith to faith. There is growth. When we’ve had a real heart encounter with the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, it is not a matter of growth, we are changed inside. We don’t have to be taught to delight in the things of God, we just do. It comes with the new nature. Just like the Apostle Paul, when we truly encounter the Lord Jesus, the religious scales fall from our spiritual eyes and the Lord Jesus becomes our focus in life (Acts 9:17-20). No longer is it a duty to do what is right and shun the wrong. There is a heightened knowledge that comes with the new nature to guide and govern us. The Bible comes alive to us, not as mere stories, historical facts, and laws and precepts to follow to “make it to heaven”. It is the good news of what all God did in order to freely give us the kingdom of God. The Bible becomes the revelation of Jesus Christ to us personally. It becomes our swing set that offers a life time of delight and benefits showing us the unlimited plan, purpose, and power of Jesus Christ for our life, and through the Spirit, this is just the down payment. The full payment is the big swing set in the sky. Jesus paid for and assembled it for us. Receive and enjoy, like a duck to water.

Four Paws in the Air

Waylon and Willy, my two little twenty pound, light tan, wiry haired rescue dogs, as with other dogs, loves to be patted and rubbed on. When we go walking together they will be all preoccupied sniffing around and investigating things, then suddenly they will just run over to me and jump up on my leg wanting some “lovin”. I generally give it to them, patting them on the head and scratching my fingers on their round little bodies in their coarse fur. If I do it for any length of time their paws will slowly slide down my leg from sheer relaxation and if I continue they will end up lying on the ground on their back with their paws up in the air, totally submitted to the ministration of what feels so good. Often times their eyes will be closed to just drink in unhindered the realization of all the good that is coming from their master.

A universal sign of surrender is hands up and eyes closed with one’s life placed totally at the mercy of the power over them. This is not done for show to impress others of one’s humility. It is done to surrender your life over to the power that is greater than you. It is done to receive what that greater power has for you. It is just between you and the greater power. When we have a realization of what God has done for us, and what he continually does for us, and we have praise and thanksgiving in our heart toward him, it is just natural to raise our hands to surrender our lives to him and honor him for who he is and what he does for us. He purchased us from the slave market of sin and adopted us for his own, to walk and talk with him all our days on earth. He has positioned us in Christ, seated together with him in all powerful heavenly places far above all the powers of our enemies, to rule and reign in life. Even when we go into adversities, by our communion with him we can have victory in the midst of the appearance of defeat. He is ever with us to help us. As we draw on his help, we worship him, we praise him, our hands go up in appreciation and honor to him. Truly, Jesus Christ is Lord, and we are not ashamed to confess and show that to God himself. Only selfish pride, fear of man, and lack of trusting God would keep us from surrendering all that we are and have unto him, and certainly, that is what would keep us from simply raising our hands in love and honor for who he is and what he has done for us. All creation is a testimony of the goodness and greatness of God. If a dog can raise all four to his master, certainly we should be able to put our two up to God.

Serenity of Soul

What a wonderful visit we had with Mary Jewell, a beautiful and pleasant lady 100 years of age. A drive to a hilly, rocky, part of Arkansas brought us to her home in a picturesque place of hills with outcroppings of rocks and a 90 acre spread with a big rolling creek rippling right through the middle. It was a fitting setting to encounter such a wonderful lady as Mary Jewell. She had crocheted a wall hanging for us of our last name “Calhoun”, which was sent to us through a friend last year. She said that was the last one she was doing. We wanted to meet her and thank her for the treasured piece of art that hangs front and center in our living room. She is a lady as gracious as her handiwork, as is her son, Dan. Dan lives on the same life-long home place in a separate house, but he is right there within a minute to help take care of anything she might need. Superb hospitality provided a very memorable visit with two unforgettable people. In fact, with Dan’s blessing we picked up three unique rocks from the creek bed to be kept as a memorial of our visit with Mary Jewell and Dan. We asked of Mary Jewell the secret for her longevity. Her reply was “laugh a lot”. She was well practiced in that exercise, as she so easily broke out into a gentle laughter. I came away from the visit with the phrase in my mind of “serenity of soul”. They are people who are not ashamed of their faith in the Lord, and through the bumps and even the dire events of life, they choose to see the bright side of things.

The Bible says you will keep the Lord in perfect peace as you keep your mind “stayed” on him, through your trust of him. Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength (Isaiah 26:3,4). It also says a merry heart does good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones (Proverbs 17:22). Life can throw us twists and turns leaving us maimed and broken. In the midst of it all if we will get our mind and our very being to “stay” on the Lord, or give ourselves to learn all we can of him and his ways and his word, we will derive strength for the battle. Our setting in life might be a war zone of strife and stress, the opposite of the setting described above. That is all the much more reason to keep one’s mind “stayed” on the Lord and his ways and his word. We will choose to either voice the negative, which, “dries the bones”, or, we will engage in the “medicine” of trusting the Lord unto voicing praise, humor, and thanksgiving for God’s help and goodness in the midst of the chaos. People who trust God can have serenity of soul.

Learning to Play the Piano

It has been a life-long desire of mine to learn to play the piano. My Dad gave me a Sears Silverton acoustic guitar when I was about 11, and I taught myself to bang around on that, mostly just chording to accompany singing. But I wanted to learn the piano. We didn’t have one, so the opportunity never really availed itself. When I went to college I thought, “Ok, they have piano training here, and little rooms just big enough for a piano that you can get in and practice, so I’ll just learn to play the piano here.” So I signed up and eagerly went to my first class. It was like that teacher was talking to me in a different language. It didn’t take long that day to figure out this was not the way I was going to learn to play the piano. I dropped the class. Fast forward fifty three years and three wives later, one by divorce, one by death, and now living with one who plays the piano by ear and can rip it up like you would not believe. A piano is in the house, and, Christmas a year ago I got a keyboard with headphones (all the practice is only heard by me). I make an effort to practice and play some every day. It’s a lot of work, but the reward is good. I enjoy it. I’ll probably never be good enough to play with George Baker’s Bluegrass band, but I enjoy what I am able to accomplish. It is a struggle to get what my brain is trying to do on those 88 keys laid out before me, and to actually get my fingers to accurately do it. It takes focus, “programming in” the correct thing to do, and lots of spaced repetition to ingrain it into me so that it becomes part of my life.

The Bible says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word (Romans 10:17). We can increase faith with the Word of God like learning to play the piano. When we place our focus on the promises of the Word, and “program it in”, or “hide it in our heart”, and keep that Word before us with “spaced repetition” so that it becomes a part of our life, there will always be good results. When we hear something over and over, we get to believing it. When we “get to believing” the promises of God, the sky is the limit. With God all things are possible. That is the value of feeding on and embracing the Word of God. That Word can bring peace to our soul and life to our flesh in healing, restoring, rejuvenating, power. The power is there in the Word by the Spirit of God. If we are willing to give ourselves to focus and persistently apply that Word by affirming it out loud into our life situations, we will be able to play a new melody.

A Good Soldier

A soldier is trained and disciplined to carry out a mission under the direction of a superior authority. When a person joins the military, they leave behind life and identity as they knew it, and they are subject to the life and identity that the military gives them. They are told what to do and how to do it. They enter into a time called “boot camp” or “basic training” in which there is intensive training on every physical and mental level. This shows if a person can take the rigors of being in the military, and, it starts preparing a person to take on the mission ahead. When a person identifies with a particular area of activity within the military, they will be trained specifically in that area for expert efficiency. All of this is so the overall mission can be accomplished of defending our nation from enemies and doing what we need to do to obtain and maintain liberty and justice and for all.

A Christian is to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Jesus had a mission to carry out from the higher authority of his heavenly Father. This was his supreme motive in life. It is why he was alive. Carrying out the plans and desires of his heavenly Father was not only his top priority in life, it can be said it was his only priority. All else was subject to this. In order for him to accomplish this he maintained very close communion with his “headquarters”. He would arise early in the morning and spend whole nights in prayer and communion with his heavenly Father in order to be prepared for executing God’s order for the day. He was extremely careful to be faithful to his Father in hearing from him and carrying out his plan. Because he did this, he accomplished obtaining everything involved in eternal salvation for those who believe. To believe on and follow him is to have our identity changed to being a son of God. We are now in God’s army. In order to accomplish the mission he has called us to, we too must come under the training and discipline of a higher authority. Spending time with God in total commitment to him allows us to identify our areas of specialty in which he will work with us to develop into expert efficiency. He does this so we can be strong soldiers to maintain our personal freedom and to be a team member to provide freedom for others. Often we are carried by other’s spiritual strength, but there comes a time when we must take personal responsibility to do what the “higher authority” is calling for us to do to make it through the battle. Father God has designed for and wants you to be in victory. He calls you to turn loose of pride and self-sufficiency and apply his spiritual measures to fight your way out. A good soldier is totally committed to accomplishing Father’s mission.