Showing posts with label Holy Spirit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holy Spirit. Show all posts

Sunday, May 13, 2018

BEING A MOTHER REMINDS ME OF THE TRINITY: Devotional by Lorilyn Roberts


With my younger daughter, Joy


Being a mother reminds me of the Trinity. I could never be a mother without a child to love. In the same way, God could never display His unconditional love unless He was in fellowship with the Son. Only through sacrificial love could God's ultimate Glory be revealed, and that required a relationship with His Beloved Son. And now we are all His Adopted Sons and Daughters through the Holy Spirit. Three in One.
Without children, much of God's love would have dried up in my heart, never to be shared. How much less God's Glory would have been appreciated by me. My daughters would never have known God's love through a young woman, abandoned and rejected, too young to be left childless, too full of promise to be left without Hope, and too hopeful to be left without Joy.

Thank goodness God uses flawed, imperfect human beings

I hate to think how empty my life would have been without my two beautiful daughters. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, friends and family, who prayed for me every step of the way to Nepal and Vietnam. And I thank our Heavenly Father for adopting us into His Forever Family. Eternity awaits.

Saturday, May 13, 2017

BREAST CANCER: HOW WE SHOULD VIEW OUR BODIES: Devotional by Lorilyn Roberts





My comments were made in reference to the link below.  Confessions and Lessons by R.K. Patel

If you would prefer just to read my comments, I have copied and pasted them here.




As someone who just had a double mastectomy for breast cancer and undergoing breast reconstruction, I now have a new appreciation for my body. Like you (R.K. Patel, see article referenced), I had been critical of myself, and I have many scars also. It's strange now that I don't have my old breasts, while I'm thankful for the fake ones, I wish they were real.

Sometimes we don't appreciate what we have until we don't have that thing anymore, 
like good health. Cancer takes that away, especially when you are late stage. Now, I'm thankful for what God has given me, and I'm taking better care of my body, like eating healthy, getting enough sleep, and exercising regularly. I'm making the time for a healthy lifestyle. 

The one thing I would add is that the Bible says our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it's incumbent to take better care of it so that the Holy Spirit can thrive. When we take better care of our physical bodies, we feel better spiritually and mentally. We make better choices. We live better, and since we aren't running out of gas, so to speak, pulling ourselves down with negative thoughts and critical beliefs about ourselves, we have more to give to others. We will love better. We live out of abundance, not limited by our own personal needs.

Boundaries are important also. With healthy boundaries, we will know what we are comfortable with, and we won't compare ourselves to others. Our bodies are holy, so we should be holy, in all our ways. When we do that, we will glorify God, and that should be our highest calling.


Monday, December 5, 2016

INSPIRATIONAL REFLECTIONS ON GOD: Devotional by Lorilyn Roberts






I wonder if God looks back to His creation when it was untarnished by pollution, unblemished by famine and disease, and not scarred by the ravages of war.



When unpolluted oceans bristled with life as He walked in the garden with Adam; when He created strange-looking creatures just for the sheer enjoyment of creating; when sunsets danced to colors our eyes cannot see and waterfalls beat to the pulse of His heart before we broke it; when rocks proclaimed His glory and flowers sang His praises; when life was found in everything and death did not exist; a world we have never known, at least not yet.

A world that was and a world to come, joined by a tiny thread of love woven through the fabric of time. A remnant of His perfection is hidden in our DNA. The crust of earth beneath our feet gives hint to His creations from ages past. The stars that shine as angels in the night sky proclaim His lordship over every living creature. The winds that mount on eagles’ wings fill the earth with His spirit of redemption. Even the animals know.




“Ask the animals and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you, or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In His hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind” (Job 12:7).





God longs to live within our heart.  He shouts to us in our suffering.  At the crossroads of who we are and who God desires for us to become, we are either consumed by evil or we are conquered by love. If our sinful thoughts lose their grip, evil will lose its power. 




Someday God will fill in all of those cracks. But during our time here, He wants to prepare us for a better place; a place where we will be perfect, even as He is perfect.

God delights in the process of molding us. I take comfort in the fact that God wastes nothing and uses everything. Truly, no eye has seen or ear has heard what God has prepared for us. Our deepest hurts and failures will become God’s fertile soil for something far greater than we could ever have imagined.

“...we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us” (Romans 5:3-5).




Monday, May 26, 2014

GUEST POST BY ESTELLE P. SHRUM: “In That Moment”


IN THAT MOMENT
~~Estelle P. Shrum



The moment you accepted Jesus as your personal Savior – was the exact moment you became righteous by God through the blood of Jesus Christ.

The moment you opened up your heart and mind to the “Son of God” you became redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.

The moment you believed the Word of God you became a child of the King.

The moment you asked the Holy Spirit to enter into your life you were washed as white as snow.

The moment Jesus entered your heart you became a new creation of God’s elect.




That moment in time made all things new and your life was no longer yours.

That moment you were made reconciled by God through the sacrifice of Jesus.

That moment death no longer held you captive for eternity.

That moment all things were new.

That moment was not done by anything you did or didn’t do, but by grace.

That moment was because of the love of God’s Son dying on the cross.


That moment washed you, redeemed you, saved you, and made you righteous by your acceptance of Jesus Christ.

That moment changed your life, in all you do, in all you say, and all you are.

“Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Titus 2:14

*~*~*~*

Being born in the "Big Apple" New York City in 1946, Estelle P. Shrum was at the apex of the baby boomers.  She is a retired hospice nurse, Red Cross volunteer, and does health fairs. Ms. Shrum also volunteers for ESL, English as a second language, and volunteers at a food bank. 

Ms. Shrum says, "Everyone has a story to tell and my story has a compelling testimony of how you can come from a violent alcoholic family and still conquer all your fears, insecurities, and nightmares.  It was not an easy journey for me.  I had a real struggle with trusting anyone, especially God.  Then I had a divine encounter with the Almighty and I was never the same.  My whole purpose in life is to serve the Lord.  Praise God, indeed!"   


Estelle P. Shrum - Author He Is The Word 



Wednesday, February 13, 2013

PRISONS OF THE MIND - CAN DEAFNESS SET THE CAPTIVE FREE: Devotional by Lorilyn Roberts



Recently a deaf person emailed me a letter that profoundly touched me. I don’t have permission to print it—hopefully, at some point, I will—but I wanted to share my response with her. I have a large contingent of deaf and hearing-impaired people who follow my blog. Her struggles are universal also, not just confined to those who are hearing disabled. I pray that my thoughts are Godly and thought-provoking. Salvation is a momentary decision but can take a lifetime of surrendering. Wherever you are in that decision, after reading this blog post, please share. This may be your moment….don’t waste it. 





By Lorilyn Roberts

Satan’s biggest deception is to masquerade as an angel of light. He wants to trick us into believing, if it were possible, that Jesus Christ is not the answer. The paradox is that God made us both strong and weak. We are strong in the sense that we fight for life at all costs, longing for what He gave us in the beginning – eternal life. We are weak in the sense that true happiness can’t be found except in our relationship with Him. If Satan can convince us we can be as God, our pride will make us reluctant to admit we need anyone or anything else. Humility lies at the beginning of the road to salvation.

There are many kinds of prisons and you’ve found one of them – the bottle. Prisons null our pain, but they also take away our freedom—most importantly, the freedom to choose. God also never takes away our freedom to fail but will never not give us what we need to succeed. The devil will give you what you think you want—God will give you Himself. Some prisoners will go to their grave having sold their soul to the devil—for this world and the next. For what? A lie. 

Ultimate freedom in Christ will never take away your freedom of choice. If you have made idols of your wants or lowered your expectations of what will make you happy, you will be imprisoned in your mind to false gods that will do nothing to save your soul. Sin feels good at the time, but a moment of bliss can bring a lifetime of regret. Ultimately, sin will destroy your ability to hear God’s voice. Don’t forget, eternity is forever. We will all spend eternity in heaven or in hell. The choice is ours.

You are strong in the sense you have found freedom by conquering your dependency on alcohol. God has blessed you with a spouse to love and cherish. As you have discovered, however, it’s not enough to be free FROM something. We need to find our freedom IN something.

There is not enough of anything in this world to bring us complete happiness. There is not enough power ball money, adoration of fans, cushy jobs, plastic surgery, or computer gadgets to fill our hearts. We aren’t made to have a relationship with idols. We are made for a relationship with Jesus Christ. Without Him, all other pursuits may bring partial or temporary happiness, but they are fleeting at best.

That brings me to the root of your quest for answers. Who is God? You were born deaf, and your whole life has been devoted to overcoming this limitation in order to survive in a world where nearly everyone else hears. You feel flawed, shortchanged, and your perceptions have influenced many of the choices you have made, both good and bad.

Has it ever occurred to you that God made you that way for a purpose? You might ask me, “Why would God do that?”

People ask that question in reference to their own “flaws” or “disappointments” or “lot in life” hundreds of time each day. I have asked myself that same question – I even ask it of others. Why did God take away my friend’s eyesight? Why did my beautiful adopted daughter from Nepal suffer for years with seizures? Why did God allow her to drink contaminated water from Nepal that gave her a brain infection? Why are there 150 million orphans around the world with little hope of being adopted?

My goal is not to make you feel guilty or to compare your disability with others. You have already done that plenty of times. We all have. That is part of Satan’s ploy, to guilt us into feeling like we are no good, or trick us into comparing ourselves with others with a legalistic yardstick—God does not measure our value in such a demonic, meaningless way.

We need to remember how much our sin grieves God. It took the death of His Son, Jesus Christ, to make it possible for us to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Can we know the evilness of sin and appreciate the price God paid in our fallen, depraved state? We can’t see it—except through suffering. We see sin when we see a young child die of cancer. We see sin on the battlefield during war, in a car accident that devastates a family, in a drug overdose that kills a young person, and in the sex trafficking trade in Nepal and India. We shake our fist at those things and proclaim the wickedness of man, aghast that any decent human being could rip out a young girl’s genitals and sell her as a slave. We cringe and become angry—angry at what we know is wrong and inhumane.

Our infirmities remind us of our need for Jesus Christ. We are driven to repent when we realize how weak we are in spirit to do even one good thing. Our blindness and deafness and diseases awaken us from an indifferent slumber and instill in us a longing for the day God will wipe away every tear. We don’t suffer in vain—we suffer for God’s glory. If we give our weaknesses to Him, something supernatural happens within us that is more powerful than anything man can invent or achieve. The Holy Spirit makes us bold and enables us to let go of past hurts and forgive. We are compelled to take our eyes off of ourselves and focus our hearts and minds on the one who created us. We remember once again we aren’t made for this world. We are made for eternity.

Your ability to rise above your deafness can only take you so far—it can’t overcome that emptiness within you that only the Holy Spirit can fill. In fact, Jesus Christ is so much bigger than your deafness, that if you truly allowed Him into your heart, your heart couldn’t contain Him. You would burst with joy—not that you are deaf, but that He’d given you so much joy. You would thank your deafness for allowing you the privilege of bringing others into the kingdom.

God has given each person many gifts. He has given you a gift of writing. If you want God to use you to help others, you need to claim one gift which you have not yet unwrapped. You need to claim His gift of salvation.

You have figured out how to live in this world marginally happy, but you know there is something missing. You are using the freedom God gave you to reject Him—His love for you and His salvation for you—forever. Forever is a very long time. If you die as a believer, you will be given a new body with perfect hearing. The greatest gift you will receive in heaven will be your appreciation for what you never had here. I believe my greatest gift will be the unconditional love of Jesus—the assurance that He will never leave me—I fear being abandoned.

What we don’t have here for God’s glory will be magnified in heaven, poured out, given with such generosity it will be as the stars that shine down on us or the sands that cover the seashore. If God lavished us with those perfect gifts here, would we really appreciate them? How many people have died lonely and broken—seemingly who had everything? How many truly happy people live in Hollywood? It is out of our need that God fills us, for then we know without Him, we are needy. The nothingness is what draws us to Him and enables us to be used by Him. We become His witness, His voice, His legs, His eyes, His ears, and His servants. We become part of the Great Commission.

Ask yourself: How can I use my deafness to draw people into a relationship with Jesus Christ? Use the one thing you don’t have to glorify Him—and you will find that your greatest suffering and need will become your greatest asset and joy.

Remember also, God loves you. He loves you more than you can imagine. Someday you will stand before heaven’s gates—will they open and allow you to enter? Don’t let anyone take away your desire to know the truth. As the Bible says, the truth will set you free. The search for answers will lead you down paths that only God can answer, that won’t be found in bottles of wine or quick fixes that lead to death.

I want to share a short excerpt from my book, Seventh Dimension – The Door, about a young girl who spent her whole life bullied and rejected by others. She was imprisoned by her worthless and destructive self-image. Read what the King did and ask yourself, is this not me?

Then the king turned towards me. I now knew the king completely—as my heavenly father, the father who loved me, the father who would never leave me or forsake me.

“Your sins are forgiven.” He held out his hands and the fresh scars on his wrists overwhelmed me. Tears flowed freely. He said, “I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”

A birdcage gently floated down from the sky and landed in his outstretched hands. He took the cage and hung it on an olive tree. A small bird sat inside the cage. The king opened the door to the cage and the small creature walked from its perch and alighted on his finger. He lifted the bird out of the cage, kissed it, and whispered, “You are a daughter of the king.” 

I realized at that moment, he was saying those words to me. I felt his tender kiss on my forehead. I gazed into the sky as the bird flew into the heavens. Before I could say anything, the king was gone.

In Luke 4:18, Jesus said, "The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, for He has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free.”

You’ve been a prisoner long enough. Jesus, the King wants to set you free. He has opened the door to your heart, just as He opened the door to the bird cage for Shale and set her free. Don’t delay. Invite Jesus into your heart, ask Him to forgive you of all your sins, receive the Holy Spirit, and begin the first day of the rest of your life. You have a story to tell that only you can share. Someone needs to hear it, not the least of which is me. I want to know what Jesus has done in your life. Please share it in the comments below.


*~*~*


Saturday, June 19, 2010

PARADISE FOUND: Devotional by Lorilyn Roberts






As a closed captioner for television, sometimes the news can be overwhelmingly depressing. As I look at the oil spill in the Gulf, the missing child in Portland, Oregon, and the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the world appears cruel and heartless. If it bothers me, as sinful as I am, I know it must grieve our heavenly Father.

Today I am reminding myself of the heavenly home that awaits me. While I can’t change the world I face each day, I can renew my thoughts and how I view the sometimes unexplained darkness. By allowing God to work on my heart through His Word, I can gain a heavenly perspective, lifting my spirit from the gutter that robs me of my joy.

Take a few moments and see what God is preparing for us. Our negative thoughts can be redeemed, helping us to live each day with renewed hope for a brighter future.

Revelation 21:4 says. “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” 

This new order will follow the greatest war in the universe when God and his angelic warriors battle against Satan and his powers of darkness. Earth will be the battleground and man the prized possession. While the eternal battle wages on for the destiny of our souls, we can rejoice that Heaven is a real place—a place where our failures will no longer paralyze us; where perfect love will cast out fear, joy will abound in unceasing laughter, and unfettered peace will dwell forever. It is but one heartbeat away for those who believe in Jesus Christ.

On earth, we are locked in time, but heaven exists outside of time. Sadly, sin has tainted almost every aspect of our lives—the way we think, the way we live, and the curse, passed down from Adam and Eve, plagues every living creature. But in heaven, there is no sin. It is a place of unparalleled beauty. Think of the most beautiful place you have ever visited and it won't compare to the majesty of heaven. Heaven is an out-of-this-world kingdom inhabited by thousands upon thousands of people and angelic creatures. When we pass through heaven's gates, we will be clothed in spiritual bodies that will no longer be imperfect but eternally perfect.

Apparently, some saints will shine brighter than others, depending on their faithfulness to God, just as some stars appear brighter in the night sky. There will be rewards for our good works and for bringing others into the kingdom.

In heaven, there is no competition for food or toll for survival—even in the animal kingdom. Romans 8:22 says, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” 

The wolf and the lamb will feed together. Children will play with lions. The sound of crying will never be heard again. The old order of things that we are subjected to now will have passed away, and our afflictions and troubles will no longer be remembered.

It is never dark in heaven because the glory of God gives it light. The New Jerusalem will shine with the majesty of Perfection. The city will be built of pure gold, pure as glass. The foundations of the city wall will be made of precious gems and the twelve gates to the city of single pearls. Nothing impure will be able to enter the city. 

A river will flow from the throne of God, a crystal, clear, river called the River of Life. Within the city, there will be a Tree of Life which will bear a different fruit each month. Its leaves will be for the healing of nations.

Heaven, as portrayed in Revelation, also has many mysteries that are beyond our understanding. For example, the four winds who obey God and the four unusual creatures who unceasingly give praise to our heavenly Father. I wonder, what did John mean when he said the sky receded like a scroll? And where heaven is physically located is not revealed, but in Genesis 23:12, Jacob “had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.”

In Revelation 4:1, John sees an open door to heaven; and in Acts 7:56, Stephen said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” Because it is impossible for anything defiled or sinful to enter into heaven, it would have been impossible for anyone to go there if God had not provided a way. In Leviticus 26:12, God said, “I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.”

Long ago Satan and his angels were cast down, and today we battle against these unseen powers of darkness. But through the Holy Spirit, we have a taste of heaven here. The Spirit whispers to us in our sleep, comforts us in our pain, and implores us never to give up. The Bible reminds us of the unwavering truth that even the rocks would cry out in praise to our heavenly Father if it were possible.

When Jesus hung on the cross, He said to one of the two thieves beside Him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” 

I take comfort in the fact that for the last two thousand years, Jesus has been preparing a place for those who believe in Him. I Corinthians 13:12 says we see through a glass darkly, but someday heaven will be fully known to us, even as we are known to God.

Someday heavenly music will permeate our ears. We will splash with joy in heavenly waters emanating from God's throne and walk on streets of gold. We will be reunited with those who have gone before us. We will feast at the marriage supper of the Lamb, and all those whose names are written in the Book of Life will see the face of God. 

What a glorious eternity awaits us. Let not the heartaches of this world discourage us from remembering the richness of God’s grace even here—found in Jesus Christ. God sent His only Son to die on the cross so that we might have eternal life in heaven. As Jesus said in John 16:33, “In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”