January 26, 2020
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I love reading the Word of God. I love the Proverbs for direction and wisdom. I love the Psalms which lifts me up while I praise and worship Him. My heart glorifies Him as I read His Word and it is like looking at a sunrise in the morning each time I meditate on His words. His Word is breathe taking, full of awe, beautiful and full of life. This time of year my heart is full of praise as I meditate on His love and provision. Just reading His Word and these verses can bring joy, peace, hope, strength, love, courage, faith and Him to your heart. Right now with changes in our life my heart’s desire is to keep my thoughts and focus on Him. I am desiring to live the let-go life and not put limits on Him or lean on my own understanding! He is the only One Who can give me the wisdom and direction I need in this season of my life. It’s His peace that guards my heart from the fears and unknowns that try to get into each day. I pray you can enjoy each beautiful day that He has made and rejoice in Him and praise Him always. His Word and love will make it even more glorious. Remember who you are in Him as you read these verses and enjoy His precious, unfailing written Word and love.
 
Sunday: “O Lord, our Lord, how excellent, majestic and glorious is Your name in all the earth!” Psalm 8:1    
 
“I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will show forth all Your marvelous works and wonderful deeds. I will rejoice in You and be in high spirits; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.” Psalm 9:1-2   
 
“The heavens declare the glory of You, Lord; and the firmament shows and proclaims Your handiwork.” Psalm 19:1
 
Monday: “I love You fervently and devoted, O Lord, my Strength.  You are my Rock, my Fortress and my Deliver; my God, my keen and firm Strength in Whom I will trust and take refuge, my Shield and the Horn of my salvation, my High Tower. I will call upon You, Who is to be praised.” Psalm 18:1-3  “You are Refuge and Strength, a very present and well-proved help in trouble.” Psalm 46:1  
 
“I love You fervently and devotedly, O Lord, my Strength.” Psalm 18:1 
“I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me. I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency.” Philippians 4:13
 
Tuesday: “O clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph and songs of joy!” Psalm 47:1  “Great is the Lord and highly to be praised in the city of our God!” Psalm 48:1 
 
“O God, You are my God, earnestly will I seek You….So I have looked upon You in the sanctuary to see Your power and Your glory. Because Your loving-kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You. So will I praise You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My whole being shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.” Psalm 63:1-5
 
Wednesday: “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My mouth makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together.” Psalm 34:1-3  
 
“Make a joyful noise unto God all the earth. Sing forth the honor and glory of His name, make His praise glorious! Say to God, How awesome and fearfully glorious are Your works! Through the greatness of Your power shall Your enemies submit themselves to You. All the earth shall bow down to You and sing praises to You; they shall praise Your name in song.” Psalm 66:1-4
 
Thursday: “Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, extend to the skies and Your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God, Your judgments are like the great deep, O Lord, You preserve man and beast. How precious is Your steadfast love, O God! The children of men take refuge and put their trust under the shadow of Your wings. They relish and feast on the abundance of Your house; and You cause them to drink of the stream of Your pleasures. For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light do we see light.” Psalm 36:5-9

“May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the Holy Spirit, Himself indwelling your innermost being and personality.” Ephesians 3:16 
Friday: “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust also in Him and He will bring it to pass. And He will make your uprightness with God go forth as light and your justice as the shining of the noonday. Be still and rest in the Lord; wait for Him and patiently lean yourself upon Him.” Psalm 37:4-7  

“My grace, My favor and loving-kindness and mercy is enough for you sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully; for My strength and power are made perfect fulfilled and completed and show themselves most effective in your weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ may rest, yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell upon me!” 2 Corinthians 12:9
“Be strong, strengthened inwardly in the grace, spiritual blessing that is to be found only in Christ Jesus.” 2 Timothy 2:1 
Saturday: “And He has put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many shall see and revere and worship and put their trust and confident reliance in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord His refuge and trust and turns not to the proud or to flowers of false gods. May, O Lord my God, are the wonderful works which You have done, and Your thoughts toward us; no one can compare with you! If I should declare and speak of them, they are too many to be numbered.” Psalm 40:3-5
 
“Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous; for praise is becoming and appropriate for those who are upright in heart. Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre; sing praises to Him with the harp. Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully with a loud and joyful sound.” Psalm 33:1-3
 
“We pray that you may be invigorated and strengthened with all power according to the might of His glory, to exercise every kind of endurance and patience, perseverance and forbearance with joy.” Colossians 1:11
“The Lord is my Strength and my impenetrable Shield; my heart trusts in, relies on, and confidently leans on Him, and I am helped; therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song will I praise Him.” Psalm 28:  “Blessed be the Lord, my Rock and my keen and firm Strength” Psalm 144:1
 

As I start this New Year, new decade the Lord has put so many things on my heart for the year. I really haven’t had the opportunity to really sit down and digest all I am hearing but I know this is an exciting time to be a part of His powerful ministry. So many things are happening as we all know. Our country and the world are in need of so much prayer but then if you are like us we even have so much happening in our families and close relationships. As Pastors, we are seeing so much hurt, sickness, confusion, devastation in just our church family besides all we minister in the community. It’s more than usual but we know that there will be victory in Jesus.
 
I have shared before that last September the Lord put on my heart to do communion every day. I have done that and have also read some awesome books that have opened my eyes to the power and truth of communion. Like many, I didn’t understand communion and it seemed to always be a time of condemnation by the preacher as you were to focus on your sins. I have learned much since then. I have seen and heard amazing things after taking communion. It has changed my life.
 
This past week I was reading form Joseph Prince’s book – Eat Your Way to Life and Health. It has been such a wealth of wisdom and understanding for me. As I was reading I read about when the children of Israel were dying in the wilderness from snakebites. The people asked Moses to pray to God to take away the serpents. But instead this was the answer from the Lord.
 
“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.” Numbers 21:8-9
 
What I learned from these verses was that God was telling the people to get the focus off their bites and look at the serpent on the pole. He was saying not to remember the pain but to look away to Him. The serpent was a picture of Christ being raised up on the cross.  “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up” John 3:14 When things are going on we can’t look at the problem but we must look to Him. This is actually part of the 2020 vision of this year 2020. When we look to Him our vision cannot be blurry. But it’s definitely blurry and not 2020 vision when we look at the circumstances and issues.
 
“The same night in which he was handed over, he took bread and gave thanks. Then he distributed it to the disciples and said, “Take it and eat your fill.  It is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me.” He did the same with the cup of wine after supper and said, “This cup seals the new covenant with my blood. Drink it—and whenever you drink this, do it to remember me. Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are retelling the story, proclaiming our Lord’s death until he comes.” 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
 
As we partake of holy communion we are taking our eyes and our focus off the situation, pain, sickness, problem, hurt and looking up to Him as He was lifted up on the cross. It says to take communion to remember Him and what He did for us at the cross. We are remembering His love and sacrifice for us. It’s such a powerful time with Him. As I was listening to the Lord speak to me about Him being lifted up as the serpent was on the pole it reminded me of one of my favorite stories in the Word. I shared this story last summer but it’s very vital to share it now. As I was talking about at the beginning of this devotional that there are so many people who are struggling and hurting. Myself, I have had some fears on if I can do what I am called to do and do it as He is showing me to. Sometimes I just need someone to come beside me and encourage me.
 
Moses was fighting a battle and losing. It wasn’t looking good. The Lord had told him as long as he raised his hands in praise he would win and when he dropped his hands he would lose. We don’t know how long he had raised hands but they were growing weary. That’s when two great friends came in to help. They held his hands up for him! What an amazing story that is.
 
“Now Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said to Joshua, “Choose us some men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.” So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.  And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.  But Moses’ hands became heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.  Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.” And Moses built an altar and called its name, The-Lord-Is-My-Banner;  for he said, “Because the Lord has sworn: the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”” Exodus 17:8-16
 
Moses went up to the hillside with his rod and watched the battle. Here is another place he had a rod that he lifted up like the serpent rod. When his hands were lifted up – he had victory in the battle. When his arms fell down – the battle was being lost. Lifted up. Those words hit me. When our hands are lifted up to Him – our focus is on Him and we are not focusing on our issues. When FRIENDS come along and left up your hands for when you are growing weary it is so incredible. “I will lift up his cup of salvation and praise him extravagantly for all that he’s done for me.” Psalm 116:13    “Lifting up your hands in holy worship; come and bless the Lord!” Psalm 134:2
 
My heart right now is for each of us to minister to others by raising their hands when they are weary. As we are lifting up others we are lifting up Him and have our focus on Him. As you are looking up to Him and all He did for you at the cross, lift up the hands of someone close to you whose hands are getting heavy.  This may not be a literal lifting of hands but it should be if possible. Keep your eyes, focus and heart looking to Him. It’s your choice to choose where your eyes focus and Who you serve. “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…..But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15 Choose to take communion and focus on what He did for you. Choose to lift up the hands of someone who is struggling and weary. Choose to lift your hands to Him and serve Him. This is how the battle is one – keeping your vision, your eyes, your focus on Him and not the hurts and pain in your life. One day when I took communion and went back to get more bread, this is what I saw. It was HIs promise of love to me.
 

First, I want to start with a praise the Lord for the past year! It wasn’t all easy but He never left us alone! In my life I had plenty of opportunities to see His wonderful love shine through. I had courage to sing His praises in the presence of my enemy. I saw miracles, many things happened that exceeded what I believed possible. I was in peace when my mind told me I should be stressed and worried. It’s not that I never faltered or fell down but I was able to get right back up because of His love, grace and ever present help in time of trouble. It was a year I learned a lot about myself, who I was in my own ways and who I was in Him. Today I want to share a many of the ministry’s highlights of 2019 and our goals – visions and direction from the Lord in 2020.

2019 at Mountain High Chapel:

• **One of our greatest visions is to reach out and help others beyond ourselves and we successfully did that. Each month we help 12 missionaries/ministries around the world. Weekly we supported and help feed the children in Kenya. You as a church, gave about $13,000 to help 17 Kenyan children go to school and university. We sent money to help with various projects in Kenya and Peru. We had many fundraisers for Kenya and the pig roast for Peru. THANK YOU!
• **During the school year we provided fruit weekly to the local school to help children in the area. Thank you Jim for heading this up and those who give into this ministry.
• ** We fed families every month from our pantry and gave extensively to many families during the holidays. Thank you, Jen, for all your hard work in helping others.
• **Each week we were blessed by: Anointed praise and worship, thank you Juli and team and to Josh and Ben who lead when needed – Powerful messages by Ed, Joe and Josh – Thursday night classes have ministered to so many and are life changing classes. Thank you to all who share in this.
• ** Our Usher and Greeter Team are amazing and so welcoming to everyone who walks through the doors. Thank you, Art and Chris, for years of faithfulness.
• **Had special classes with Griefshare that changed the lives of many but especially Risa before she went home to be with the Lord – Thank you, Jim and Patti Jo!
• **Through the services, counseling and individual ministry many lives were changed in Him. Marriages are being healed, people with substance abuse are healed, heart issues are sent away and healed and lives are changed eternally. Thank you, Ed, for your countless hours of one on one ministry to the church family and to this community.
• **Ministry of healing happened during the several memorial services that we had here and other places. Thank you to all who ministered through prayer, helping with food and meals and extending His love to those hurting.
• ** Many weddings and premarital counseling
• **Many people healed and made whole through the ministry of laying on of hands and prayer. Lives radically healed from many things including strokes, cancer and serious operations people had to have. Thank you Jim and Ed for all your hours visiting and praying for people in the hospitals.
• **We have a VERY dedicated and powerful prayer team who relentlessly pray for the requests and needs of this church family, people in the community, this country and the world. Thank you so much Tamme for overseeing this and all those who pray in faith, believing and pray without ceasing for others.
• **Our Children’s Church was powerful this year! Even though we didn’t have as much help as we would have liked we were able to minister to the hearts of the children and see lives changed, I believe for eternity! Thank you so much Candise, Patti Jo and Jerry for giving your hearts to these little ones.
• **Many lives were changed through the Youth Group this year also. In this season when the group is small it is still exploding with ministry to the youth hearts. Thank you, Josh and Aimee and team for your dedication to these young people and for WEEKLY making all the burritos that help support Youth functions and other needs.
• **Awesome ministry opportunities through Faith Ministries Network with the Youth Camp, Women’s Conference and Men’s Conference.
• **Men’s breakfast has been a life changing ministry too. Thank you, Joe, for faithfully leading this and for Dave and team for all the wonderful food you prepare. Lives are being changed.
• **The Ladies ministry has also ministered to the lives of many women this past year. Thank you, Jeanette for your love for the women and desire to encourage them in the Word.
• **This year our media team has branched out in new technology and been able to get the messages to the world in various ways. What a blessing! This is a huge ministry when you consider all the people around the world who tune in on purpose or by accident and are receiving the message of love and grace. There are testimonies of lives being changed! Thank you, Brian and Josh, for your many hours of getting the tech part of this tweaked and working. Also, thank you to Emily and Mike for helping with the sound and filming the services. What a great blessing!
• **We are able to send out CD’s of the services to several people across the US some twice a month and some once a moth. We hear reports of how much this ministry is appreciated and valued. Also, the messages are on CD for any of the church family to have and review or share with others. Another powerful ministry and we thank Patti Jo and Jerry for your dedication to this ministry.
• **Our Legendary Bar church is growing beyond what we would have imagined. Thank you, Ed, for your vision to reach others in this way and all who are a part of making it go. We also started a monthly church in Del Norte, CO which is a blessing and success.
• **There were times when the finances were lower than they have been in years but the ministry went on as usual! Thank You, Jesus, for Your wisdom and provision.
• **We were able to do a few updates to the church building and the grounds always look so presentable and welcoming. Thank you, Art and Chris and team, for all your hard work keeping the church property looking so nice.

 
2020 Visions and how we are preparing for the out powering!

• **A year of 2020 vision – A Vision that is focused and not blurry. We will keep our eyes focused on His ways, His thoughts, His Word, His Love and reach the world with His message of love and grace!
• **New Declaration: “Don’t stop! Keep on singing! Make his name famous! Tell everyone every day how wonderful he is. Give them the good news of our great Savior. Take the message of his glory and miracles to every nation. Tell them about all the amazing things he has done.”
• Psalm 96:2-3
• **We will go forward in our usual ministries and seek His direction as we grow, learn and minister in ways we never thought we could.
• **Continue with the monthly Legendary Bar Church, Del Norte Church
• **Believing to start a Bible Study for men out of jail but in the system – what an opportunity to help them with a new life course!
• **Thursday night studies will continue to flourish and grow
• **Prayer team to grow and be a team that is praying 24/7
• **Word and ministry to go forth in greater ways through various media opportunities
• **Continue to bless and support the children in Kenya and Peru and beyond
• **New ideas for fundraising for the Children’s homes
• **Pig Roast and Car Show to support Peru – Homes of Refuge
• **Extra classes and studies during 1st service
• ** FMN (Faith Ministries Network) World Conference that we will host in June to be an outreach for the community and our church family along with the other partners and International guests that will be here
• **Church house to continue to minister to folks
• **Needed repairs and updates to church building and church house
• **Mission trip to Canada in August
• **Mission trips to Peru and Kenya
• **Children’s Church to grow and flourish – more help so we can grow and for the summer VBS
• **Community outreach – each person in the church family reaching out weekly and sharing their testimonies of His amazing love with one another
• **Life Groups – Home Groups – Grief Share – Financial Ministry – Marriage Ministry – Parenting Ministry
• **Powerful Men’s group and breakfast
• **Flourishing Women’s group and Bible study
• **Explosive Youth Group
• **Young Adult Group
• **Finances to give into every good work the Lord is leading us to
• **Finances for a church secretary that can be at the church 4 days a week
• **Finances to pay for more cleaning, up keep and maintenance work needed for the church building and church guest house
• ** Finances to do repairs and updates on the church building and church house

 
I want to close with this – Ed and I believe and know that we are the most blessed pastors there are. We have the greatest church family. We do so much for a small church on a mountain. You are the most wonderful, giving, loving people and we are thankful beyond belief that we can minister together with you! Thank you for all you do and give and let’s continue to work together and hopefully more will even want to get involved in some areas so we can minister to this powerful out pouring of people that are coming to know the Jesus we know and represent. Love you all so much!

​We just returned from a wonderful time in Israel. I’m going to try and write some of my thoughts and experiences. It’s hard to put into words what I really have inside. I want to start that I never had a desire to go to Israel before I did the first trip 2½ years ago. The first trip was given to us and I am so thankful for that gift. We went never expecting to go back. But, we came home wanting others to experience what we did. So a date was set and the Lord put together an absolutely wonderful team. There were 28 of us – 3 from Montana – 8 from California and the rest from Colorado. And here we are talking about the next trip and what we will do when we go in 2 years! We NEVER thought this would be something the Lord would lead us to do. We are willing, though, and started to plan already.

          I’ve been trying to pinpoint what touched me the most on our trip. Seeing sites that are 2000+ years old is quite impressive. It’s amazing and really too much to wrap my mind around. We spent the first 3 days in the Sea of Galilee region. We had a beautiful place with patios that faced the Sea. To get up  early and sit out there with coffee and the Word just soaking in the peace was heaven on earth. Then in the evenings many of us would gather our chairs and talk about the day and pray. It was so peaceful. A peace that’s hard to explain with words but easy to feel in your heart.

          In Galilee we saw the ruins of a synagogue in Magdala that we know Jesus taught at. We took a boat ride on the same Sea of Galilee that Jesus walked on. We saw Peter’s home where Jesus stayed. We also had a baptism in the Sea. The Sea of Galilee is one of my favorite places on earth. Just imagining that this is where so much of Jesus’s ministry happened excites my heart. It’s impossible for me to be anywhere there and not have tears of joy in my eyes. We also saw some of the fortresses that King Herod built. To see these ruins and imagine life over 2000 years ago was incredible. We even saw a temple that Abraham had been to. The land is just so rich with history and makes the Bible come alive. The technology of those times was so remarkable. What they built that has survived for over 2000 years is beyond what our technology of today could do. The water systems, massive fortresses, bath houses, carvings, written words on scrolls and stones and a wooden boat are pieces of our story that have been preserved for us. This is where our story as Believers basically started and where it will someday end. It’s a gift to us.

          We then traveled to Jerusalem. On the way we saw another palace of Herod’s and Gideon Springs where Gideon narrowed down his army from 32,000 men to 300. It’s a beautiful place where a natural spring still flows. In Jerusalem our moments of peace were only present inside of us. Jerusalem is people hurrying, cars honking at each other, lines and lines of tourist buses in traffic jams, sirens blaring and a huge mixture of cultures, nationalities and religions all in one city.

          The Garden of Gethsemane was our first stop and very peaceful. The Garden Tomb was the last place we visited and so full of peace and love. In the middle we saw many sites, were in many traffic jams, was in huge crowds of people pushing and shoving. We saw the Mount of Olives, City of David, Old City, traveled to Masada, Ein Gedi- where David found Saul in a cave, the Dead Sea, Qumran –where the Dead Sea scrolls were found, walked through Hezekiah’s tunnel, sat on the Southern steps of the temple where Jesus came and went to the temple, prayed at the Western wall, followed the Palm Sunday road that Jesus traveled, walked the Via Delarosa- the journey Jesus took to the cross. We went to a modern day market, ate lots of falafel, wonderful buffets and had a wonderful time.

          As I’ve reflected on it all I think what affected me the most was the sadness I had for all the people there. The Jewish people love God – the same Father God we love. Our guide, Benny, who is a Jew shared his passionate love for God and talked about Jesus but didn’t talk about the love of Jesus. The Orthodox, Catholic and other religious denominations believe in Jesus and that He died and rose again but the traditions of man have made it an impersonal worship. They are all built on and around works, deeds. The works of praying a certain way at a certain time of day, food dos and don’ts, ways to worship, what to wear. I’m not saying none of them have a personal relationship with Jesus that they can come into His presence and believe they have everything because He is their Savior. But when you see them praying at the wall believing that this is where they have to go to be close to God, reading repetitious prayers that aren’t words from their own hearts, building shrines at places that they think Jesus may have been at or buried at, there is sadness in my heart because I know – we know there is so much more. They have built a huge, ornate church on the place that some believe Jesus was buried. The people will stand in line for 3 or more hours to kiss the place they believe is His tomb. They walk the Stations of the Cross chanting their prayers at each station and almost half of the stations are man-made stations. The crowds along the Via Delarosa are unreal, so crowded, so religious, so pushy and so sad. My heart breaks for these 1000’s of people who are doing their religion not letting Him live through them.

          Then there were all the pagan cultures we saw especially King Herod’s cities that were terribly evil. I understand when I hear people say to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. The religion is so powerful there that there is no peace unless you know Jesus as your peace. God’s name is Jehovah Shalom which means peace. He is the God of peace but they don’t see the true God of love. Jesus is the Prince of Peace.  “Jesus said to him, “I am the only Way to God and the real Truth and the real Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” John 14:6 Amplified
 
“Jesus explained, “I am the Way, I am the Truth, and I am the Life. No one comes next to the Father except through union with me. To know me is to know my Father too.” John 14:6 TPT

          Our heavenly Father knew the mess the people were in. He could see there was no hope. No way, no peace, no love. That is why He sent His Son to be our sacrifice once and for all. We no longer have to sacrifice with works and laws. The Christians believe Jesus came and they worship the road He walked on, the place He died, the places He was. They don’t worship Him as their Savior and Lord once and for all. They focus on the externals not on the Lamb of God Who came and gave His life for us. The place has become a business, full of materialism and religious nonsense. Our team was mobbed by merchants selling their goods and one even hit me with one of their items because I told the team to keep moving and not to buy anything. “And Jesus said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.” Matthew 21:13 (KJV).  What’s happening there has been happening there for thousands of years. There is nothing new under the sun. The enemy has people’s eyes blinded and their hearts deceived. This isn’t just in Israel or Jerusalem, it’s our whole world. Israel - Jerusalem is a place of great attack because of its history but more because it’s where Jesus began His life on earth, where He ministered, where He died, where He rose from the dead and where He will return. Of course the enemy will focus his deceptions on this place. The devil knows the power of the Word and he doesn’t give up on blinding those who will let him lie to them.

          I heard the Lord tell me to not take for granted what we have in Him. When you have a close relationship where you can come into His presence and know He is in you and with you always, guiding directing and loving you with His everlasting love – don’t take this relationship lightly. We get so involved and caught up in our own dos and don’ts about grace and that His love covers it all so it doesn’t matter how I really live. In my heart I feel this is no different than those working for their love. We get where we make up our own man-made conditions for grace so we can still believe and live as we please. We avoid TOTAL surrender because we still want some things our way. We still want to control some areas because we don’t really trust what He will do with our lives if we surrender to Him. We really don’t believe He is a Good God until we are ready to give it all to Him. Jesus gave it ALL for us. We saw where He walked, where He taught, where He lived. The place was a mess back then and there was no way for true relationship without the ultimate sacrifice – Jesus. God knew this and Jesus sacrificed His life for you and me. The place probably hasn’t changed much – it’s just different evils. They still don’t see Jesus as their only way to the Father. They can’t have all He died to give them because people don’t want to give up their traditions and own beliefs. All He did right there in front of their eyes and they still are blinded. The world is still blinded by His Truths and His love. How will they ever see the Truth if we don’t be a Light to the world? It’s a hurting world and the world needs a Savior. We have the Savior but do we let the world see how great He is in us? Do we still get caught up in our own selfish desires? Can the world see us living the life of heaven on earth as we know that we have? Do our lives look just like everyone else’s and our light is hidden under a bushel?
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          This trip opened my eyes to just how lost the world really is. My heart was saddened by all these people believing they are doing the right thing to please God. Actually, many of them have sacrificed their lives but sacrificed it to the laws and works that they think will eventually get them to that intimate place and it never will. I know the world is lost and lots of evil everywhere but to see the religious working so hard for their God that they can’t have a heart for Jesus. I felt the peace of Jesus in Galilee but not in Jerusalem as much. But even when Jesus was there in the physical they didn’t acknowledge Him, did they? Something to ponder.
          Continue to pray for Jerusalem and the people of Israel. Pray for people everywhere. Pray for your neighbor who can be just as caught up in deceptions as the people half way around the world. Search your heart and see what can be holding you back from being a light to this broken and sad world. Surrender whatever is keeping you from being as intimate as you desire. I’ve been doing that myself. I want to shine for Him so that others can come out of the darkness they are trapped in. I love being in the presence of the Lord. He walked with me along the Galilee, He was sitting with me in the Garden of Gethsemane and the Garden Tomb. He talked to me on the Southern steps of the temple and let me know He was with me. This is my heart for everyone – to know Him personally and have eternal life.
 
“Eternal life means to know and experience you as the only true God, and to know and experience Jesus Christ, as the Son whom you have sent.” John 17:3