Fairy Tale Marriage, Soul Mates, or Journey Partners

July 20, 2022 by 1 Comment

man and woman looking at lakeTHE OTHER DAY as my husband and I were enjoying some quiet moments together, I started thinking about our marriage and how to describe it. I knew we didn’t have a fairy tale marriage because even though it started out that way, it obviously didn’t continue. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have experienced a three year separation after over 20 years together.

Soul Mates

As for being soul mates. I hear couples talking about that. But we are not ones who know what the other is thinking. We don’t finish each other sentences—unless I’m listening to my husband telling jokes or repeating stories I’ve already heard dozens of times before. And although we share some of the same interests and opinions, we diverge in a number of others. We process things differently and solve problems differently.  Our personalities are entirely different, and sometimes we just don’t understand each other. So we’re not soul mates.

Then, as I thought more about soul mates, I realized that although I don’t actually have a soul mate with skin on, I do have a soul mate. And his name is Jesus. Jesus is my soul mate. He’s the one who knows my every thought. He’s the one who can finish my sentences. He’s the one who is heart of my heart, who I can call on at any moment and feel the peace of His presence. The Faithful One who knows my weaknesses and failures and loves me anyway, always reassuring me of His love.

So if my husband and I don’t have a fairy tale marriage and we’re not soul mates, who are we?

Journey Partners

I believe my husband and I are the reality of what God designed marriage to be. Not fairy tale lovers, but journey partners.

We’ve journeyed through this life together and experienced the good and the bad, the for-better and worse, the in-sickness and health. My husband is the one God brought into my life and gave to me so we could grow together. God’s plan was to use our similarities and differences to teach us what He wanted us to know and to grow us into the man and woman he wanted us to be. And, ultimately to use us for His purposes in our lives and the lives of others.

God has often used us as sandpaper in each other’s lives, to challenge us in our behavior and assumptions and shave off rough edges, to cause us to go deeper in our thinking and in our faith.  We’ve grown together over the years as we each took inventory of mistakes, past and present.

When I look at this man today I may not always see the funny, carefree, easy going young man I married so many years ago, but when my heart lingers a little on the man beside me, God opens my eyes to see that, yes, this is the man I fell in love with, the man who won my heart, the man I didn’t want to live without.

The fairy tale didn’t last, but the commitment did, and as I found my real soul mate in Jesus, I also discovered the precious treasure I had in giving and receiving the love of my husband as journey partner – not perfect, but wonderful, warm and comfortable, a listening ear when I want to talk, an encouraging presence in lonely, unsettling, discouraging or stressful times, an old friend who remembers the same movies I do, and a partner who cheers me on in my hopes and dreams.

We’ve traveled through life together. We’ve experienced it all—together. Our pasts are linked with an assortment of memories entwined through decades of laughter, grief, tears, happiness, plenty and want, discovery, celebration, disappointment, joy, and sorrow. We share memories together only the two of us can know.

This is my man, my journey partner, the treasure God gave me to share life with, the love of my life—my husband.  I thank God for His precious gift and pray that He will never let me forget that my husband –though not perfect in himself – is God’s perfect gift for me in the purposes He wants to accomplish in my life and his through our relationship.

Today, as we share this quiet moment together, I look into my husband’s face and see him again– the man I married, the man I love, the man I chose to live my life with, and the man I would choose again if I had to do it all over again.

***

If you expected to have a fairy tale marriage, but your marriage has come to crisis instead, my book, Fighting for Your Marriage while Separated may help you learn the secrets of becoming journey partners and finding the happy marriage you’re hoping for.

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Day-votions with Your Faithful Father – Interview with Author Rebecca Barlow Jordan

June 23, 2022 by Leave a Comment

Dayvotons bookWHEN LIFE GETS HARD and we don’t know where to turn, author Rebecca Barlow Jordan wants to remind us that we have a faithful heavenly Father who wants to meet our needs. In her new book, Day-votions® with Your Faithful Father: 90 Days with the One Who Wants to Meet All Your Needs, Rebecca shows us how to talk with God intimately and honestly about our deepest needs. As a bestselling, award winning author of 13 books, and with the pen of a poet and the heart of a disciple, Rebecca’s passion is helping readers find intimacy with God. In this new book, she wants to show you what it means to be His child.

Linda: What led you to write your book, Day-votions® with Your Faithful Father at this particular time? 

Rebecca: As a young mother, I had a deep hunger to know God more intimately, and a longing to understand His character and His names. So I began noting His names and attributes in the margins of my Bible during my quiet times. As I read through different Bible translations and versions through the years, I discovered hundreds of names and traits.

I’ve been wanting to write a book about God’s faithfulness ever since. I authored 12 other books, including a series for women that I trademarked the name, Day-votions®. But I kept journaling in my Bible and began to notice more of God’s activity. Over and over in Scripture, I would see, “The One Who….” and discovered how truly faithful my heavenly Father was. And how many verses dealt with Him as being not only the “Supplier” of our needs but as being the “Supply” Himself.

I’ve written an encouraging blog for years, trying to help people grow closer to the Lord. Emails started coming in from people, asking me to pray for them. They expressed needs, experienced heartaches, and desperately wanted answers.

When the pandemic began to spread throughout our world, I knew it was time to write this book. Never had I seen so many universal needs. People were discouraged and had endured so many losses. I wanted to encourage others by helping them see God’s unchanging love and faithfulness in every situation, but especially in our most pressing ones. I ultimately decided to write this new book about God’s faithfulness under my “Day-votions® umbrella name.

Linda: How have you experienced God’s faithfulness in your own life? 

Rebecca: That’s a great question, Linda, and that was the basis and underlying reason for writing this book. When has God not been faithful?

Author Rebecca Barlow Jordan

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Looking back over my life, I can truly see God’s footprints of faithfulness everywhere I turned.

When I was younger, I’d see depression, fear, disappointment, or discouragement as roadblocks. I’d experience heartache, financial need, marriage issues, and parenting woes. Much too often, foolishness or confusion tried to upend desired wisdom. I cried out to God for help, but sometimes the process of healing was painful and messy. I despised having “needs.”

But life is messy and painful at times, and we will always have needs. I wanted to know my heavenly Father better, but not that way! Strangely enough, the majority of times I experienced His faithfulness was in the way He met those needs—and not always the way I expected.

He has brought me through times of depression and refilled my life with joy. When my marriage hit the wall, my husband and I wrestled through the pain of restoration and fell in love all over again—because God heard our cries, and we learned how to do the hard work involved. God provided jobs when we had none. He sent us on vacations, prompting others to gift us with special trips. When one of our daughters went missing, God brought her safely home. God’s grace, love, and faithfulness brought us through those and so many other challenging trials.

Linda: So how would you describe your new book, Day-votions® with Your Faithful Father.

Rebecca: Day-votions® with Your Faithful Father: 90 Days with the One Who Wants to Meet All Your Needs (2022) is a devotional based on God’s attributes and activity, with truths drawn from his powerful Word, to help readers renew their hope, joy, peace, and trust in the One who is faithful and unchangeable.

Linda: At the beginning of your book, you ask readers, “What if your needs were God’s personal invitation to experience His faithfulness in a greater way?” That’s a pretty thought-provoking question. Can you tell us why you asked that question and how that relates to your book? 

Rebecca: I wanted to help others see their needs in a different light, but also to understand how deeply God longs to meet those needs for us.

None of us want to call ourselves needy. Most of us consider needs as unwanted enemies.

But not God.

Our Faithful Father knows that we can do nothing apart from His intervention. Yet we often try to meet the deepest needs of our lives on our own.

Whether physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually, we encounter problems and challenges from the moment we are born. Haven’t we all experienced fear? Distress? Disappointment? Pain? Don’t we all need encouragement? Peace? Comfort? Intimacy? Hope?

Our needs line up like fence posts, trying to imprison us. But our Father’s faithfulness knows no boundaries. He sees our needs differently because He created us. He knows how helpless we are without Him and that our needs can actually draw us to Him.

Hebrews 4:16 (NIV) tells us the reason why we can turn to our faithful Father: Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Linda: Tell us about the format you used to write your devotions.

Rebecca: Twenty years ago, when I wrote my Daily in Your Presence series, no one had used the particular devotional format of sharing heart-to-heart, two-way prayer conversations with God. I wanted continuity from those books because they also featured God’s names and attributes, and readers responded well to them. So I kept that same format in Day-votions® with Your Faithful Father, only lengthened the prayers and added new features, like more Scriptures (over 450 Bible verses written out), a daily challenge to apply the truths, and a page for journaling thoughts and prayers. My new devotional has 90 three-page devotions, but still has a daily truth to memorize or solidify the chapter.

Linda: What is your desire for your readers? And what do you hope they will learn or take away from your new book? 

Rebecca: My desire for readers of all my books is the same: that they will be encouraged and come to know God more intimately. I pray they will discover God’s heart and embrace their faithful Father as the Heart Mender, the Thirst Quencher, the Joy Filler, and the Grace Giver.

As far as what I hope readers will take away with them? That’s fairly subjective. As a pastor’s daughter, I know God often works in unexpected ways. I remember so many times when a church member would shake my dad’s hand after the service and say: “I really appreciate your words.” And they would complete what they heard in the sermon. But my dad hadn’t said that at all.

In the same way, I believe God speaks to us, including our readers, in unique ways—but never contrary to what is in His Word. These snippets of Amazon book reviews from some readers (both men and women) of Day-votions® with Your Faithful Father were both humbling and unexpected. I think they show the kind of takeaways readers can expect to find. In many ways, they exceeded my hopes for reader “takeaways”:

“The devotionals in the book seem to be customized for me and meet a need in my life every day.”

“I couldn’t have known God would put this book in my life at exactly the right time. Two dear people in my life have been diagnosed with cancer in the same week and I desperately need time with my Father….What I love most? While the reader can read through the book chronologically, one can also focus on the most needed topic on any given day. If I’m in the middle of chaos and don’t know what to do I might want to read Day 39: When You Desperately Need God’s Help, The One Who Is Ready to Help You. When I’m overwhelmed by anxiety, I can turn to Day 69: When You’re Feeling Anxious and Distressed, The One Who is Your Only Rock.”

“No matter how high my stress level goes, each time I press pause and pick up this book, my heart is led to ‘green pastures and quiet streams for rest and refreshment.’”

“From day one I was reassured of God’s faithfulness in all areas of my life.”

“A stunning work that provides a biblical response to the struggles we all have as Christians.”

“In a very relevant and deeply personal exchange between your Faithful Father and yourself, you will experience God in real and loving ways.”

 Linda: Where can readers find out more about you and your books? 

Rebecca: You can find Day-votions® with Your Faithful Father: 90 Days with the One Who Wants to Meet All Your Needs on Amazon, and you can find out more about me and my books when you visit my website. You can also connect with me on Pinterest or Goodreads.

 

 

 

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Filed Under: BOOKS, faith, God's goodness, God's Word, Interviews, Knowing God, Time with God, Trusting God, Uncategorized, Where is God? Tagged With: , , , ,

A Savior Who Knows the Pain of Rejection

March 31, 2021 by Leave a Comment

As we approach Easter and the celebration of the resurrection, we first come to the cross.As we approach Easter and the celebration of the resurrection, we first come to the cross.

For before the victory is the pain and suffering.

If we are among those who have suffered rejection, we meet there a Savior who knows our pain. For not only did Jesus suffer the pain of an excruciating death on the cross and the unrelenting harassment by his enemies, but during his most horrific moments of his earthly life, HE ALSO EXPERIENCED REJECTION FROM THOSE CLOSEST TO HIM.

As he was marched to his execution, where were his disciples, the men He had loved and poured His life into for the past three years?

THEY HAD DESERTED HIM, scattered in fear and confusion. One of them had betrayed Him, taken the sweet privilege of walking beside Him, enjoying his companionship, and listening to His personal confidences and used this intimacy to turn him into his enemies.

Another, Peter, who had vowed to fight for Him, never to leave Him crumbled at the simple questioning and accusations of a humble servant girl, swearing to her that HE DIDN’T EVEN KNOW HIM. Then, in shame, he too had run away.

Of the twelve, only the disciple John stood by him. And, indeed, his mother.

Yes, JESUS KNEW REJECTION.  He knows our pain. And He comes to us as He did long ago to heal us, comfort us, and give us a newness of life. For those of us who felt the stab of betrayal or rejection from spouses who vowed to love us for a lifetime, we are not alone. The very God of the Universe, the One who created us, and told us He came to heal the brokenhearted and bind up our wounds knows the pain of rejection from those closest to him on this earth.

Sometimes on this desolate journey, we feel all alone. No one seems to understand just how painful rejection can be when a spouse turns their back on us. We don’t know where to turn, who to talk to. But as we come to the cross, as we look up to the One who spilled out his blood on our behalf, whose love bleeds sacrificially into the healing of our hearts, we can know WE HAVE A SAVIOR WHO DOES UNDERSTAND. He’s been there. He’s felt our pain. He loves us, and He promises to heal our broken hearts.

This Easter, experience your Savior’s love as a personal gift to you. Let the love He offered on the cross heal the wounds of rejection.

And as the salve of love binds up your heart, allow yourself to capture the beautiful climax of what happened next. JESUS SHOWS US THAT REJECTION AND PAIN ARE NOT THE END. That with Him beside us, there is victory. Let Him comfort you in your pain, but through His resurrection, let Him also show you the path to the abundant life He so desperately wants you to have. He wants so much for you to experience the wonderful new life He has for you that He died to give it to you.

If you’re looking for more help to heal your broken heart, I pray my book, Broken Heart on Hold, Surviving Separation, can help fill in the gaps.

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Filed Under: comfort, Depression, Easter, Grief, Jesus, Lonliness, loss, Love, Pain, Receiving Christ, Rejection, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

A Special Family Christmas Eve Service in Your Own Home

December 22, 2020 by Leave a Comment

Photo by Jose Antonio Hernandez

Since Christmas Eve services might look different this year and may even be non-existent in places where churches are closed, I want to offer you a sweet and meaningful alternative you can have in your own home. It’s the Family Christmas Eve service my parents did with my brother and I when we were growing up.

It became a treasured tradition I even carried into my own family when my husband and I had children of our own. In fact, we still do it today, even when we attend services at church. Many times our adult children and their children participate as well. Although the Christmas Eve services at church are always beautiful and meaningful, our folksy Christmas Eve service at home joins us together as a family in a personal celebration of the Christ child that took root in my soul as a child and imprinted cherished memories in my heart for a lifetime.

If you’re lamenting the loss of attending a Christmas Eve service, Covid doesn’t have to steal Christmas from you. In fact, it may launch a tradition you will treasure for years to come.

Family Christmas Eve Service

Leader: The service will begin with the youngest member of the family lighting the Christmas candle in honor of the Holy Christ Child.

(While the candle is being lit, read)

Leader: And Jesus said: “Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.  Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall not enter it.” (Luke 18:15-17)

Leader: Now we will read the Christmas story.  (Different members of the family will read different selections.)

Read:  Luke 2:1-7

Everyone sing:  “Away in a Manger”

Read:  Luke 2:8-14

Everyone sing: “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” and “The First Noel.”

Read:  Luke 2:15-20

Everyone sing:  “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem”

Read:  Matthew 2:1-12

Everyone sing:  “We Three Kings”

Leader: Now let us pray.

Prayer:

Oh precious Father of our Lord, who was born on this sacred day, and Father of mankind, a mankind that is not always aware of your constant presence, and Father of ours, we thank you this evening for the original Christmas gift that you gave, which awakened our hearts to Thy love and which gave us the loving Christmas spirit of giving which is at the very core of our Christmas tradition.  Thank you for the gift of your only Son whom You loved, but whom You gave for us because You so loved us.

Dear Father, help us to remember the true meaning of Christmas all through the Christmas season, even when horns are honking at us in the Christmas rush traffic, when shoppers jostle us or carelessly block our way when we are hurrying about our business.  Imbue us with the Christmas spirit at these times and on Christmas day when we are filled with the excitement of opening presents, eating turkey and Christmas goodies, and visiting with family and friends.

But most of all, help the Christmas season to be just a beginning to our New Year so that throughout the coming year we are filled with, and can spread to others, the Christmas spirit of love, joy, peace, hope and understanding.  Infiltrate our thoughts and our desires so that we will desire what you would have us desire and so that we will remember those who need us, our services, and our worldly goods.

Help us not to bypass anyone who we could help, nor say an unkind word to save our pride, but help us to live as Christ taught us to live and to remember His words, “Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these, you have done it unto me.”

Finally, dear Lord, give a peace to our souls so that in the stillness that You provide, we can block out the clamor, frustrations, and worries of the world sufficiently enough to be aware of Your constant presence, to hear Your voice, and to discover Your will for our lives.  And as each year passes, help our spirits to grow and mature so that in our final years our souls will be able to enter into Your heavenly glory, not as strangers, but as your true sons and daughters.

In the name of the holy Babe of Christmas we pray.  Amen

Everyone sing:  “Silent Night”

Leader: The oldest member of the family will extinguish the candle, ending the ceremony, but beginning a year of service to our newborn Lord.

*Suggested preparation: Put out one Christmas candle, find four Bibles (or pass one around and share), hand out song sheets for everyone. (lyrics can be found by clicking on song links above).

If you’re trying to hold together a broken family because of a troubled marriage, let my book, Fighting for Your Marriage while Separated, help you put it back together.

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Dying to Meet Jesus, Author Interview with Randy Kay

April 9, 2020 by 1 Comment

We’re living through a scary time in our world with the daily death toll from Covid 19 rising each time we turn on the TV. But author Randy Kay has no fear of death any more. Because of a near death experience a few years back, Randy Kay can encourage those of us in the age of Covid 19 through his description of what it’s like to experience heaven. His new book, Dying to Meet Jesus, begins with his near-death-experience after dying and meeting Jesus in heaven. As CEO of PACEsetters and chairman of TenorCorp, Kay has written for Forbes and the Wall Street Journal.

As we look forward to Easter and the celebration of new life Jesus brings to us through His death and resurrection, Randy’s story gives us a riveting  glimpse into the heaven our God has prepared for us.

Linda: Randy, I understand you have more than 30 years of experience working in business and are the founder of PACEsetters. Tell us more about your background and how you became a Christian.

 Randy: ​I was a devout agnostic in my youth and challenged all religions through a comprehensive study at Northwestern University that I detail in my book.

Our researchers debunked all religions except Christianity. Most religions were created by a single individual or a fusion of beliefs. However, we discovered that the biblical account of God being true was validated with a probability ratio of 1.26 million to one! After that I cried out to an unknown God: “If you’re real, I need to know you as genuinely as I know my loved ones on earth.”

After surviving a near-fatal car crash, I began my sincere search to learn about the God of the Bible. I attended a church near Chicago and responded to an invitation for attendees who wished to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. I prayed, and later that night I indeed met Jesus Christ in my spirit. Still, I remained a bit of a skeptic. I certainly did not believe in near-death-experiences (NDEs). That is, until I had my own.

Linda: I watched a TV interview with you and saw that you experienced a miraculous face-to-face encounter with Jesus, meeting Him at the point of death. Do you recall your first thoughts when seeing Jesus in heaven during that near death experience? ​

Randy: Yes, I clinically died from multiple blood clots and a drug-resistant infection throughout my body. My heart stopped beating.

I remember that first time meeting Jesus as vividly as if I were there right now. My “cheek to cheek” meeting with Jesus brings me to tears whenever I think back on it. My first thought in heaven was: “So this is Love.” Jesus hugged me, tightly. He did not have to say that He loved me, because His presence permeated every fiber of my being. I remember a sense of “knowing” – knowing that Jesus was my all, and that nothing could happen to me without Jesus being with me. Perfect peace and comfort possessed me. “I am with you always,” He said. I just caved into His chest. I felt at home like never in this world.

Linda: Can you describe the senses you experienced during your time with Jesus?

Randy: ​In heaven, Jesus fulfilled all of my needs, so I did not long for anything and I certainly had no worldly cares. Being with Jesus was sufficient for me. This is a difficult thing to describe, because that sense is like nothing on this earth. It was total completeness, absolute contentment. Another sense I experienced was that I had all of Jesus’ attention. I knew that He held the cares of the world, but I felt as though I was an audience of one.

As to heaven itself, the colors were more vibrant, the fragrances more aromatic, the landscape more beautiful than anything in this world. Everything was alive. The glory of God rested through the environs, and everyone and everything worshipped the Lord.

I remember the angelic chorus, rows of linens, the joy on the faces of everyone in paradise…there really are no adequate words to describe heaven. It was like walking into another dimension, as though I was viewing a beautifully painted landscape and then suddenly I had stepped into a living version of that landscape.

Linda: What a beautiful, comforting picture you present! Particularly at a time like this. Since your near death experience, have you struggled at all to share this story? How have people reacted to the story of your near death experience?

Randy: ​It took me 14 years before I could share my near death experience publicly. Before then, only a handful of people knew about it. There was no need to share it with others who might trivialize the most important meeting in my life. That is, until I was interviewed on GodTV about a business book I had written, and the interviewer (who was my former pastor), asked me about my near death experience. I cried while sharing my story for the first time publicly.

On the flight back, the Holy Spirit prompted me to write another book. However, this time the Holy Spirit prompted me to write about “our special time together.” At first, sharing this experience was hard. I felt like I was defiling something sacred, but then God’s peace and inspiration filled me, and the writing just flowed out. That is how I wrote Dying to Meet Jesus.

I now pray that readers will know God more intimately after reading this book. Also, I wanted to address the question as to why a loving God allows suffering. I hope that readers will better understand why God allows brokenness and suffering to happen, since I share several stories of brokenness involving others as well as my own sufferings. I share the suffering of my daughter’s struggles with drugs, illness, rape and attempted suicide for the first time. I also share my own struggles with depression. Several others in my life allowed me to share their stories of brokenness also.

Linda: What trials did you face after your near death experience? Did you expect to face more trials, or did you believe that the worst was behind you?

Randy: I never doubted God’s Love after my near death experience, but I did struggle. In fact, some of my greatest sufferings occurred after meeting Jesus. I lost my job, my financial security, and almost lost my family. At times I wondered why God did not just take me when He “had the chance.” However, in heaven, Jesus told me that He was returning me to this world because my purpose had yet to be fulfilled. Since then, I began teaching people how to thrive in life and how to overcome struggles.

Previously, I was a corporate executive. I lost almost all of my savings trying to fulfill the purpose with which God commissioned me, but I never doubted God’s hand in my life. When challenges arise, my Lord tells me to “trust” Him, and that He will always make my path straight. I am continually reminded that God is still with me.

Linda: Did your near death experience change your outlook on life? Please tell us a little about that.

​Randy: I know Love as a person and as a guiding presence, and that has made all the difference in my life. I can handle challenges better because of this deeply embedded awareness of Jesus as my friend. He is more real to me than most people I know! I can speak to others about God with more confidence and understanding. And, this has given me an insight into Jesus’ absolute devotion to His children that has transcended into every area of life, both the good and the bad.

Linda: In your book, you say, “Friends, be careful what you pray for.” Why do you have this reminder? ​

Randy: God answers prayer, but He will do it in a way that is best, even if the way to attain what we need is fraught with challenges. God desires our best, whereas we oftentimes desire what is convenient, or what appears good. This world sullies us with its temptations and false teachings. God refines us through a process of redemption. As a father, I know that the most painful process of parenting is allowing my children to go through challenges for their own good. God may allow suffering for a reason, but He will never leave us there. God collects our tears in a bottle (Psalm 56:8), and from those tears He produces a river of abundant life. That is what I saw in heaven.

Linda: During this scary time in our world, what message of hope can you give to people who pick up your book out of fear of dying or bereavement?

Randy: For the believer in Jesus Christ, there is no real death. I never experienced a sense of having died. I only experienced a transition to another place.

Leaving this world will be like leaving your workplace, and then suddenly finding yourself on a glorious vacation with the One who loves you most.  For anyone who has lost a loved one in Christ, know that he/she feels more alive today, as difficult as that may seem. There remains an empty place for those of us who are left behind, but I can assure you that we can look forward to an eternity in heaven with no remembrance of our losses or sufferings.

Grieving for a lost loved one is normal, but only because we will never again see our loved one in this world again. For believers in Jesus Christ, think of dying as similar to saying goodbye at the airport knowing you will not see your loved one for a while, but also knowing that someday, you will meet again. Celebrate that your born-again loved one is experiencing the best time of his or her life. And soon, like a blink of the eye from an eternal perspective, you will meet again in paradise. That will be a “wowsa moment!”

Linda: This is an amazing story, and I know people will be interested in reading more. Where can readers go to connect with you and buy a copy of Dying to Meet Jesus?

Randy: You can find the book at Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Christianbook.com, or your local book store.

Watch Randy Kay’s Interview on the Cornerstone Television Network

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Filed Under: BOOKS, comfort, Death, Doubt, Easter, Fear, Grief, Hope, Jesus, Surrendering to God, Time with God, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

When the “Merry” Has Disappeared from Christmas

December 18, 2019 by Leave a Comment

Christmas seems to have fully arrived. You see it everywhere you go. Festive displays glisten on the main streets of town. Lights sparkle throughout the neighborhood.  The words Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday greet you continually.

But for many of you the “merry” has disappeared from Christmas this year.  Things are different, and a “Merry Christmas” greeting has a hollow ring. Your heart is heavy with the idea of how you will even “get through” Christmas. This isn’t the Christmas you wanted. This isn’t the way it’s supposed to be. The sparkle and laughter are gone as memories of Christmases past assault your heart, and anxiety nibbles at future hopes and dreams.

When gloom hangs over our lives, however, we may discover within ourselves a more natural yearning to peer into the reality of the Christmas we celebrate. As we put aside the glamour, it becomes easier to travel back to how it all began—before the sparkle, before the happy music, before the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping.

There was hustle and bustle on that day, but not of people shopping; it was the descending of large numbers of people upon a small town, all trying to find the basic comforts of a place to stay and something to eat. We see a young woman, nine months pregnant riding a donkey. Can you imagine riding 80 miles on a donkey when you are nine months pregnant? And when she was ready to deliver her baby, who was the Son of the eternal God, she couldn’t even find a decent place to stay. Imagine having to deliver your baby in a smelly stable!

And that is how God came to us – not in a convenient, clean, easy way, but through tough and challenging circumstances. No warm, fine bed for Mary, the mother of God, no fragrant rooms, no support of family and friends who were far away and may have even questioned her virtue and the conception of this baby. No, God came to us in the midst of doubt, confusion, political unrest, and physical hardship. When God sent his Son to be born on this earth, he didn’t clear an easy path for him. He didn’t have a room waiting in Bethlehem. It was hard.

And, oftentimes, that is the way God still comes to us.  In the distractions of active lives, we are often too busy to notice God’s presence. We may have thought we had everything figured out ourselves – that we’d surely find a room in Bethlehem.  We never expected to have to stay in a smelly stable.  We still can’t figure out why things have turned out the way they have.

But, cradled on a bed of hay, in the middle of the odors and pain, we see a tiny baby, the gift of God’s love. It was the first time God was visible to mankind. And in the midst of the difficulties of your life, God has come to show you Himself. It is sometimes only when these other things are stripped away that our eyes are fully opened and we see beyond the glitter into the glory where finally we see Christmas. Perhaps for the first time, the invisible God becomes visible in our eyes, and we see Jesus himself.

God has come to love you with a love you will not find anywhere else—not in a husband or wife, not a parent or a child or a friend. God’s love will not fail you. It is unconditional and everlasting. He will not always show you a clear, easy path to your destination. But He will be with you and guide you, and at just the right time, He may prompt the wife of an innkeeper to say, “I have a place for you. I have an answer. There’s a stable out back…”

His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are higher than ours. He has a plan that is beyond anything we can see. When we take hold of God, we move beyond the barriers of our finite understanding into the reaches of God’s eternal purposes. Eternity is within our grasp. We become a part of His story.

Two thousand years ago, Mary and Joseph didn’t hear the refrains of Silent Night as they gathered clean straw to make a bed for Mary to bear a child; they didn’t see the picturesque setting of a child being born in a manger as they settled down among the animals. It was hard.

But God came to them in the middle of these difficult circumstances, not just for them, but for us.  Jesus was born into our world and into our lives.  And this is the Christmas we celebrate…a Christmas born in hardship, but wrapped in holiness and love, extending through all the ages of the earth into the glories and wonders of eternity.

If the “merry” has disappeared from your Christmas, may God’s blessings shine through the midst of your circumstances and give you a deep joy and peace that rises high above and beyond your understanding.

*  * *

And if the merry has disappeared from your Christmas because of a marriage in crisis, you can find hope and healing in my books Broken Heart on Hold and Fighting for Your Marriage while Separated.

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A Wonderful Love Letter

July 17, 2019 by 1 Comment

Photo by Himesh Kumar Behera on Unsplash

I read an inspiring letter from a soldier to his wife written a week before he was killed in battle. As I read, I thought about how much that letter must have meant to her. I imagine how his wife must have read that love letter many times after his death, over and over. What an assurance of his love it must have been! Reading the letter would bring him near once again and remind her of all they had together.

We have a letter like that also. And it is from the One who loves us more than anyone else ever has or ever will. It is a love letter from God.

Did you ever have a lover who told you, “I have so much to tell you, and I’m sending you a letter that will tell you everything,” and then when you got the letter, you set it aside and didn’t read it?

That is what we do when we put aside God’s Word and don’t read it. God’s Word is His love letter to us. In it He tells the story of His love—how He has chased us and wooed us and spoken to us through the ages. In this love letter He lays out His plans for us, tells us about the gifts He has for us and how we can obtain them. He shares His heart by telling us what’s important to Him and how we can come close to Him. He gives intimate clues in how to communicate with Him – how to both talk to Him and listen to Him.

How much God loves you

Do you fully understand just how much God loves you? In Ephesians 3, Paul expresses with great emotion his desire for you “to be able to feel and understand, as all God’s children should, how long, how wide, how deep and how high his love really is, and to experience this love for yourselves, though it is so great that you will never see the end of it or fully know or understand it. And so at least you will be filled up with God himself.”  (Ephesians 3: 18-19 TLB)

In John 3:16, the apostle John tells us just how much God loves us and what He did to demonstrate that love. “For God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son so that anyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Then in Romans 8:34-35, 38-39, Paul again pleads with us to grasp the breadth and strength of Christ’s love “who died for us and came back to life again for us and is sitting at the place of highest honor next to God, pleading for us there in heaven. . . .  Who then,” he asks, “can ever keep Christ’s love from us?”

Paul gives us the answer to that question with great authority.  “I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels won’t, and all the powers of hell itself cannot keep God’s love away. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, or where we are—high above the sky, or in the deepest ocean—nothing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God demonstrated by our Lord Jesus Christ when he died for us.” (emphasis mine)

Wow! How could anyone’s love be greater than that? How could we ever receive a love letter that carries more emotion, sincerity, and power? Why would you and I not want to read that over and over?

It’s there in that love letter

The very first time I ever read Romans 8, I cried from sheer amazement that the God of the universe could love me so much. If you ever need to be reminded of how much God loves you in spite of your disappointments and failures, read Romans 8. The power of God’s love will grab hold of your heart, and you will know that no earthly love could ever be a match for the love of our wonderful Lord.

Earthly love will sometimes fail us. People will disillusion us. But God’s love will hold us up through each and every crisis we face or obstacle we need to overcome.

With Paul in his letter to the Ephesians in chapter 3: 17, 18, I pray that as you pick up the love letter God has written for you and begin to read it, “your roots [will] go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love so you will “be able to feel and understand . . . how long, how wide, how deep and how high his love really is.”

Scripture references taken from the Living Bible.

****

If you need help to heal a hurting marriage, my new book, Fighting for Your Marriage while Separated, offers the tools you need to win back the love in your relationship even if you’re fighting for your marriage alone.

 

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The Roses I Didn’t Know

April 12, 2019 by 3 Comments

 “Do you think you’ll be able to take care of Chuck’s rosebushes?” my friend teased soon after we moved into our house.

Chuck, the former owner of our house, had greatly prized the six gorgeous rosebushes that put out a continual profusion of blooms in the bed beside our driveway.  Perched on an incline above the street, they were on continual display to passersby and greatly admired.

“Of course I‘ll take care of them.  They’re my rosebushes now. I like roses,” I said. “My mother had lots of them.”

After we moved in, I threw a little fertilizer on them occasionally and watered them when I thought about it.  But the blooms became fewer and smaller.

Within three years, two of the bushes died, and I realized I didn’t actually know how to care for roses after all.

I certainly enjoyed seeing the pretty blooms and breathing in the intoxicating scent.  I loved putting them in vases and letting the fragrance filter through the house.  But I actually knew very little about roses—particularly about raising them.  I was busy, and instead of taking the time with my adopted bushes to understand what they required of me, I took a lackadaisical attitude and assumed I knew what to do.

Sometimes I think I’ve done the same thing with my relationship with God.  I assume I know what He wants, but I don’t.  I go off half-cocked, doing my own thing, relying on my own understanding and then wonder why my spiritual life is dull and fruitless.  And then it hits me.  Do I really know Jesus?  Do I really know who He is?  If not, how do I have a relationship with Him?  How do I know what He wants of me?

Who is This Jesus After All?

Recently I spent time reading the gospels.  The person of Jesus came alive to me as I saw Him healing with compassion, challenging the self-righteous, and sowing fresh seeds of understanding in those who came to seek Him out.  I saw Him suppress His mighty power and stand meekly before those who erroneously thought they held the power of His fate within their hands as He fulfilled His father’s plan to give us eternal life.  I saw a Jesus whose understanding transcends anything my finite mind can fathom, a Jesus who shed His robe of eternity to wear the dusty sandals of a traveler on earth.

Who is this Jesus?  If we want to know him, we need to spend time with him in the places where we can hear his voice—in the Word of God, in the garden alone with him, in prayer, and in the fellowship of others who seek him.  We need to close our ears to the clamor of the world for a few minutes of each day and sit in His company. And then we need to open our eyes to watch what He does in our life and in the lives of those around us.

Some Things I Know and Some Things I Don’t

Who is this Jesus?  I certainly don’t understand all the complexities of how he works—why some prayers are answered and some aren’t or why bad things happen to good people.  But I do know He’s good and that I can trust him.  I’ve learned this through the years as I’ve deepened my relationship with Him, particularly when He journeyed with me through the heart-rending time of my separation. I’ve watched Him heal lives that seemed beyond repair, and sometimes I sit back in wonder, marveling at how He can turn crisis into a higher blessing in the lives of His faithful believers.

Who is this Jesus—really?  How do I get to know Him? I believe one of God’s purposes for us as mortals is that we ask that question and follow where He leads day by day. Knowing Him is an adventure we will explore all our lives. We just need to take the next step, then the next. We begin by reading the words He gave us and letting them sink into our hearts.  We question Him and talk to Him and seek to understand His will. As we see what He’s trying to tell us, we obey Him without letting our feeble thinking get in the way.

When we do these things and follow in His footsteps instead of wandering off on our own, our day-to-day walk with Him will become more vibrant, His direction clearer, and the fruit of our lives more abundant.  Then, one day when we meet Him face to face in our heavenly abode, we will see Him clearly and intimately and know this Jesus who walked with us and loved us throughout our lives.

Who is this Jesus? This Easter let’s take the time to find out.

© Linda Rooks 2019

Join the conversation: What new things are you learning about Jesus? Comment below.

Fighting for Your Marriage while Separated now available

 

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Christmas

December 25, 2017 by Leave a Comment

 

Yesterday, while driving around doing my last bits of Christmas shopping, Christmas music from Z88, our local Christian radio station, played on the radio. As I rounded a corner, the song “Mary Did you Know” was reaching its highpoint, asking Mary, the mother of Jesus, if she realizes that the baby in her arms is actually the God of creation, the all powerful and loving God who came to earth save us.

As the song came to its climactic conclusion, with the last words reminding Mary that the child asleep in her arms is the great “I AM,” I looked through the front window at the car in front of me and was astounded at the license plate. The lettering on it began with three letters: “IAM.”

“Ha,” I thought. “Okay, God you got my attention. You want me to focus on Who You ARE! Yes, Christmas shopping is fine, but you don’t want me to lose sight of the fact that the Great I AM came to us at Christmas, humbling Himself as a little baby so we could identify with Him and catch hold of the Light He brought into the world to save us from the darkness around us.”

I drove to a strip mall and continued my shopping. About an hour later, I pulled out of the parking lot, and there in front of me was another car with a license plate with lettering that began with “IAM.”

Wow! Was God trying to tell me something or what?

“Is this a sign from you, God? A message from you?”

As I wrapped Christmas presents that evening, went to a Christmas service, and continued thinking about what had happened, I saw that God was pushing through my Christmas routine to remind me of Who He Was and why I celebrate Christmas to begin with. He wanted to keep me focused on His Greatness, His omnipotence, and the revelation of His love at Christmas!

It’s so easy to get lost in the haphazard commotion of Christmas preparations so that the darkness of the world’s priorities begins to seep into our thinking. We get angry because someone in front of us waits at a stop sign too long. We get frustrated over the long lines at the department store. We “lose it” because the scotch tape runs out before we’ve finished our wrapping.

And for some of us, desperate circumstances have already caused the darkness around us to grow so intense that we are blind to the light that tries to break through. Christmas is merely something to manage until it’s over.

But if we look up and open our eyes, perhaps we will see that in His message of “I AM” He is telling us I Am the all-powerful God—more powerful than anything that comes against you. I AM your all-loving God, who loves you in the midst of hateful or hurtful messages. I AM the all-knowing God, who knows all about you and your circumstances. Nothing surprises me or keeps me from knowing what’s best for you. Trust Me. I came at Christmas time because I love you.

If we open our hearts and whisper a prayer, thanking God for His gift of life to us at Christmas and inviting Him into our lives, perhaps we will see the Christ Child—that baby in the manger—beaming His light of love on us to guide us through the shadows. As scripture tells us in both Isaiah 9:2 and Matthew 4:16 the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”

The name of that great light is Jesus, who is not just the baby in the manger but Almighty God. Pastor Matt Heard reminded us of that at the church service last night. When we whisper the name of Jesus, we invite that light into our lives. Then we can know the great IAM, the light of the world, who dispels the darkness and leads us into truth and grace.

 

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What is God Doing?

May 7, 2014 by Leave a Comment

. . . Recent Movies Beg the Question . . .

Sun shining through the cloudsSeveral years ago I went through an excellent Bible study called Experiencing God.  The premise of the study was that to serve God, we need to look to see what God is doing and then join Him in doing what He has already set in motion.

A couple of nights ago after seeing the movie, Son of God, I started thinking again about the message in Experiencing God . . .and wondering.  Is God up to something?

I had just seen two other Christian movies as well: Heaven is for Real and God is Not Dead. Both were excellent and both were in theaters all around the country. And they both draw in the unbeliever. They raised questions and provided answers. But they also raised other questions. If heaven is for real, how do I get there? And if God is alive, who is this Jesus?

Even though I knew the answers to those questions, the movies still stirred a hunger in me. I wanted to see Jesus, and so I went to see Son of God.

I expected it to simply be the story of Jesus’ life, a movie similar to other movies about Jesus’ life. And that would have been okay.

But it was different.

The Title Provides the Clue

I left the theater, mulling over what I’d just seen and experienced and why it felt so different, and I realized the clue was in its title. It was not just a story of Jesus’ life. It condensed and arranged the sequence of events from the Gospels into a powerful message to show that this indeed was the Son of God who came to earth to draw sinners to Himself and demonstrate His love.   It showed a Jesus who is not afraid to cause a bit of an upheaval among the Jewish leaders. In fact, this Jesus seemed to intentionally upend the conventional legality of religious thinking in order to reach into people’s hearts so they could truly see God and become reconciled to Him.

All the way through the movie runs the developing thread that this man truly is the Son of God who loves the sinner, a man whose thoughts are higher than ours with an understanding beyond our own, but with very human emotions.  The movie, of course, climaxes in His death and resurrection, followed by His appearance in the flesh to His disciples.

No, He wasn’t just a prophet or a good man.

Because of the power of the presentation, I thought, “This is a movie I’d like to take an unbeliever to see.” For it seems that any nonbeliever leaving the movie almost has to confront the question posed by Josh McDowell in his book Evidence that Demands a Verdict. It’s what McDowell calls a trilemma.” Faced with Jesus’ assertion about Himself, what conclusion will a nonbeliever make about who Jesus is? According to McDowell, as well as C.S. Lewis, a nonbeliever has three choices: Was Jesus a liar, a lunatic, or truly the Son of God as He claimed to be?  Each person must answer this trilemma for himself.

Answering the Trilemma

C.S. Lewis, who first came up with this challenge, asks: “If Jesus were a liar, why would he die for his claim, when he could easily have avoided such a cruel death with a few choice words? And, if he were a lunatic, how did he engage in intelligent debates with his opponents or handle the stress of his betrayal and crucifixion while continuing to show a deep love for his antagonists? Christ said he was Lord and God. The evidence supports that claim.”  Who is Jesus really?   http://www.whoisjesus-really.com/english/claims.htm

Son of God does not present a Jesus who was merely a good man, a moral teacher, or even a prophet, but forces you to face this trilemma.

And so, again, I ask the question: What is God doing with these three movies?  All in theaters at the same time? All continuing on for several weeks, all drawing in the unbeliever as well as the believer?

Each of the first two movies present their stories in an engaging and down-to-earth way that doesn’t ignore the doubts and questions circulating in the minds of non-believers, but addresses those questions in a forthright manner. Each of these two movies stirs up a hunger to know more about who this Jesus really is.

And I believe Son of God answers that question.

So with these three major Christian movies out in all the theaters, what do you think God is doing?

And how can we join Him?

I’d love to see your comments (and remember when you comment you can choose your identity when you sign in.  If you want to remain anonymous that’s okay.)  But tell me what you think.  And if you’ve seen the movies, I’d love to get your reaction.  Do you agree or disagree?

If you want to read more about the Experiencing God study, here’s the link.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”  John 11: 25 – 26

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