HOW FAR?

 

(The names in this story have been changed to their Nigerian meanings.) 

 

"Grace” had to decide just how far she was willing to go.  She met an immigrant named “Kind”.  The people of her country looked down on immigrants even when they applied for and gained legal status but she was drawn to him and agreed to marry him. 

 

Most people struggle with their new in-laws in a new marriage but she liked her mother-in-law, “Winsome”.  Her father-in-law had passed away before she met Kind so his mother lived with them.  Kind’s brother, “Strength”, also lived with them and he decided to get married to someone from her hometown named "Hart”.  Even after being married for ten years Grace and Hart did not have any children yet there was a lot of love in their combined families for each other. 

 

Kind and Strength were suddenly killed, leaving the women to fend for themselves.  After a time, Winsome decided to go back to her own country and because Grace and Hart loved her so much, they decided to go with her.  They started out on the journey and then Winsome decided to send them back.  She knew that they would be immigrants in her own country and not readily accepted by her people; she also knew that it would be difficult to impossible to provide for all three of them. 

 

(You can probably guess where this story came from and who it is about by now:  Grace represents Ruth and Winsome represents her mother-in-law, Naomi.  The story is taken from Ruth 1:1-19) 

 

After a little bit of struggling with the idea of returning Hart reluctantly left Grace and Winsome on the road.  Winsome tried to convince Grace to return with Hart; this is why she now faced the dilemma:  how far?  How far would she go?  Would she return to her hometown with Hart or would she go on with Winsome? 

 

We know from the book of Ruth in the Scriptures that she made the decision to go all the way.  We should look to Ruth as our example for the year 2022; part of the way just won't cut it.  The “Big Book” of Alcoholics Anonymous states, “Half measures avail us nothing.”  Grace (Ruth) deeply loved Winsome (Naomi) and decided to leave the familiar comforts of her own country to travel to another country where she would be the shunned immigrant.  She did it out of love. 

 

How far?  How far will you go in 2022?  How far will your love of Jesus propel you?  Will you travel with Him in this New Year?  Will you make it a point to meet with Him every morning to gain an awareness of His companionship for the day?  When we go on a journey with a friend or loved one, we spend time talking together.  When we walk with Jesus throughout the day, we spend time talking with Him, fulfilling His command to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17).  He gives us His insight as to what is going on around us.  Brothers and Sisters, we ARE on a journey with Him toward HIS country.  Even though the time grows shorter every day we still have time to learn and grow closer and closer to Him. 

So, I ask you again, how far?  How far will you go in 2022?

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

To all my friends, loved-ones, and followers:

I pray that this Christmas is the most blessed you have ever experienced and this next year you grow closer and closer to our wonderful Lord and Savior every day!

I continue to be blessed and highly favored as I continue to live in obedience to the Lord here in Montana. That is the KEY you know...living in obedience to the Lord. I highly recommend to you, one and all, to do a word study in the Bible of the word “obey” and you will be blessed by how many things He has promised and gives us when we walk in obedience. Obedience prolongs our lives, and the woman who reverently worships, serves, obeys, and trusts the Lord shall be praised. Another blessing that comes from obedience is that those who obey will be justified [pronounced free of the guilt of sin and declared acceptable to Him. There are many more promises that are the fruit of obedience. Really, dig into the Word and discover them for yourself and you will be richly blessed!

I still live near my Sister and Brother-in-law here in Billings, Montana. I weathered the first part of the stronghold of COVID-19. Yes, I called it a stronghold for that seems to be what it truly is. During the past year and a half it has seized our lives and turned them inside out. Just when we think we have it under control another variance emerges. Why would I call it a stronghold? The Biblical definition of “stronghold” is “old, difficult, discouraging challenges”. Since COVID-19 has become an old, difficult, and discouraging challenge it is a stronghold. THINK ABOUT THIS: what does God tell us to do with strongholds? “The truth is that, although of course we lead normal human lives, the battle we are fighting is on the spiritual level. The very weapons we use are not those of human warfare but powerful in God’s warfare for the destruction of the enemy’s strongholds. Our battle is to bring down every deceptive fantasy and every imposing defense that men erect against the true knowledge of God. We even fight to capture every thought until it acknowledges the authority of Christ. Once we are sure of your obedience we shall not shrink from dealing with those who refuse to obey. “- 2 Corinthians 10:5b PHILLIPS. Brothers and Sisters in the Lord, it is time for us to rise up and tear down the stronghold of COVID by the power of the Lord. It is not the responsibility of unbelievers, it is ours! Will you join me in pulling down this stronghold through the power of the Lord in prayer?

Every year during Advent I ask the Lord Jesus what He wants for His birthday. He blesses me with requests that end up enabling me to grow closer to Him. Is that not like Him to ask for birthday presents that bless us as well? Will you not join me in asking Him what He would like to receive from you this year? Believe me, you WILL be blessed when you do.

I continue to attend Billings Freedom Church even though it is mostly by online internet streaming. God is moving greatly in our part of the Body of Christ. New families have joined and a number of children have been dedicated to the Lord. Our Worship and Youth Leader, Pastor Joshua Black, has moved with his family back to Texas to help in the Church his Mother pastors and our minister-in-training, Randy Bear Don’t Walk, has finished his education and is moving on to the new ministry the Lord has called him to. Our Associate Pastor, Kevin Casterline, has a daughter that is blessed in leading worship and stirs our hearts to hear the Word as our lead Pastor, Gail Craig, preaches. Each service is filled with the Anointed Presence and Power of the Lord. If you would like to check it out go to our live stream of the service (which starts at 10 am Mountain Time, every Sunday morning). After Sunday that week’s service is still available for watching up until the following Sunday: https://www.billingsfreedomchurch.org/live/ or https://www.youtube.com/c/BillingsFreedomChurch.

Well, that about catches you up on how I am. I hope this newsletter finds you in good health, “blessed, and highly favored”.

Love in Jesus,

Linda Lee

EVERYTHING’S COMING UP THANKSGIVING

Here they come, oh yeah, all the sermons about giving thanks.  Every November we always hear teaching after teaching about how we should be grateful for what we have.  Every year at this time all the pumpkin and pilgrim decorations go up, turkeys go on sale, the stores get crowded, and I want to stay home.

Oh, I’m grateful, do not get me wrong, but after hearing it again and again, day after day, commercial after commercial, I just want to plug my ears, run away, and escape.

The only other time I usually just want to run and hide is when I get sick.  How about you?  When you get an infection the doctor gives you an antibiotic specifically made to kill that infection.  When you catch a virus, your body’s immune system starts producing antibodies to fight that specific virus, but if the virus is known to doctors they can now give you vaccines that can make your body produce antibodies against the virus so that you do not catch it in the first place or so that if you do catch it then it is not as severe as if you did not receive the vaccine.  Considering the past two years we can be thankful for research personnel and doctors developing the COVID-19 vaccine.  Mmmm, well at least I am.

There are so many things to be thankful for and so many reasons.  We voice our thanks and we feel we really mean it.  How much of saying thank you is from our emotions or just going through the motions?  How long will we remain consciously grateful?  How real is it to us?  November, with all its commercials, decorations, and sermons seems to be a month of inoculations about giving thanks.  You get so many doses that you really never catch a case!

I yearn to give thanks for something different – something exciting because I weary of the same old thankful sayings.  I guess Thanksgiving will be pretty much the same this year after all.

God forbid!

God Forbid that I should not be completely grateful that I have been snatched from the jaws of hell!  God forbid that I should forget each impact of the whip that my Savior bore upon His body for me, each strike of the nails being driven in His hands and feet, each thorn embedded in His flesh!

God forbid that I should keep silence about how I can live forever because my Lord rose from the grave before me, conquering death once and for all!  Now THAT is exciting!!

I cannot stay my grateful heart when I remember these things.  It pounds and beats at the door of my soul to be heard!  What my soul hears, my mouth MUST speak…

Thank You Lord,

For saving my soul.

Thank You Lord,

For making me whole.

Thank You Lord,

For giving to me,

Thy great salvation so rich and free!

If you find yourself hiding from all the expressions, sermons, and decorations of Thanksgiving this month, if your lips are silent this month, listen to the beat of your heart; you will find the bouncing rhythm of thankfulness just begging to be let out!

 

 

 

LIES, TRICKERY, DECEPTION, & FEAR

 

We live in fearful times.  Murders and mass shootings happen somewhere in our nation every week, our military service men and women are wounded and killed as they work out their assigned deployments, and our world is in the grips of a lethal global pandemic with an uncanny ability to change and mutate at will.  People turn to their political leaders for hope when those very same leaders are stricken with dread at not knowing what to do; should we mandate masks or not, require vaccination or not, close country borders or not?  Some people are going to church, after not having gone for years, trying to alleviate their fears.  They are so filled with dread and fear.  Hopelessness abounds.  How do we cope with such circumstances?

 

“Perfect love casts out fear.” (1 John 4:18)  Is it not amazing what peace this simple statement brings?  First of all, just what is perfect love?  We love our parents and they love us, but not everything we or they do is perfect.  That is not “perfect” love.  A man and woman are giddy in love and marry; to all appearances their love is perfect, but when the newlywed emotions wear off they find that will work at that love to maintain it.  That is not “perfect” love.  A woman’s love for her newborn baby is fierce.  She nurtures and teaches it as it grows, yet as an adult that child hangs with the wrong crowd and gets in trouble with the law.  Why wasn’t her love enough to keep him from the wrong path?  It was not “perfect” love.

 

To find “perfect love” we only have to examine the previous two verses in John (4:16-17).  Let’s examine them in The Passion Translation:  “We have come into an intimate experience with God’s love, and we trust in the love he has for us.  God is love!  Those who are living in love are living in God, and God lives through them.  By living in God, love has been brought to its full expression in us so that we may fearlessly face the day of judgment, because all that Jesus now is, so are we in this world.”  God IS love!  As we yield our lives to Him He comes and lives in us, driving out all that fear.  There is no room for fear where God lives.  Can you try to imagine Fear trying to rear its ugly head in the Throne Room of God?  Uh, uh; no way; not possible!

 

Perfect love does not simply make fear go away, it casts it out!  Casting is a sudden violent act.  Imagine it like a fisherman casting his lure and line into a river: he takes his pole and forces the line and lure out away from him in one fast sudden movement, pointing that pole to where he wants the lure and line to go.  Or imagine a baseball pitcher who throws a fastball across home plate so hard and fast.  He casts that ball in a fast-ball throw so violently away from himself that it speeds by the hitter before he has time to react and hit it.  1 John 4:18 in the VOICE translation states that “Love will never invoke fear. Perfect love expels fear,” and the PHILLIPS translation states, “Love contains no fear—indeed fully-developed love expels every particle of fear…”  Brothers and Sisters in the Lord, isn’t it high time we allow the power of God’s love to indwell and infuse us so that fear has no room left to rear its ugly head in this age of lies, trickery, and deceptive circumstances?  I remember once, when a friend asked me how I was, I responded, “Under the circumstances…” and went on to share the woes I was going through.  After I finished my friend said, “What are you doing UNDER the circumstances?”  My, how that was a wake-up call for me.  I know that I no longer have to live UNDER the circumstances of fearful things in this world.  I can live enveloped in the everlasting, ever living, ever powerful Love of the Lord.  Do you care to join me?

 

“The Lord is with me, so I will not be afraid. No one on earth can do anything to harm me.” –Psalm 118:6 ERV

 

 

 

“Pushed to the wall, I called to God; from the wide open spaces, he answered. God’s now at my side and I’m not afraid; who would dare lay a hand on me? God’s my strong champion; I flick off my enemies like flies. Far better to take refuge in God than trust in people; Far better to take refuge in God than trust in celebrities. Hemmed in by barbarians, in God’s name I rubbed their faces in the dirt; Hemmed in and with no way out, in God’s name I rubbed their faces in the dirt; Like swarming bees, like wild prairie fire, they hemmed me in; in God’s name I rubbed their faces in the dirt. I was right on the cliff-edge, ready to fall, when God grabbed and held me. God’s my strength, he’s also my song, and now he’s my salvation. Hear the shouts, hear the triumph songs in the camp of the saved? “The hand of God has turned the tide! The hand of God is raised in victory! The hand of God has turned the tide!” –Psalm 118:5-16 MSG

 

 

THE BATTLE CRY (Part V Thoughts on Prayer) “INQUIRE”

 1 Samuel 30:1-19

When I heard this story in Sunday school, the thing that most stood out to me was that David was brave and went after the Amalekites to get his wives, children, and belongings back.  Recently I learned a very important lesson in prayer from this scripture:  David did not go after the Amalekites UNTIL HE INQUIRED OF THE LORD!  It could be that this now stands out to me because the Lord is teaching me to become woman of prayer, but no matter the reason it is true.

“And David enquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.” –verse 8

How often I have made decisions without going to the Lord about them.  There are many decisions which would have turned out better if I had.

In Deuteronomy 1:40-45 we see what happens when we do not inquire of the Lord:  The people of Israel presumed that they could still go in and attack their enemies even after the Lord told them not to do so, and they were slaughtered because they “…would not hear, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord .”

In Joshua 7:2-5 we see that Joshua took the advice of his warriors and spies and did not inquire of the Lord before sending warriors to take the city-state of Ai.  The men of Ai started killing these warriors and killed 36 of them as they fled before them.  Joshua did not inquire of the Lord before sending his warriors out to die but he surely did afterwards and found out that there was sin in his own camp that needed to be dealt with before they could continue with conquering the land promised by the Lord.

I bet you can remember a time or times you have made decisions without seeking out God’s will concerning them.  The second time I was preparing to go to Jamaica as a missionary I did not inquire of the Lord until I landed flat on my back in a surgeon’s office facing emergency surgery.  I started asking the Lord why when everything seemed to be going so well (the Mission Base had accepted me, my working visa was being processed, and I had obtained the finances).  The Lord made it clear to me that I had got ahead of Him, His will, and His plans for me.  When I asked for forgiveness for my sin He healed the emergency problem and made a way for me to have surgery after my body and liver had healed.  He never led me to Jamaica but when I sought Him He placed me in a Christian Retreat Campgrounds where I mentored young woman working there as staff as well as further my education at a nearby Bible College.

Since then I strive to inquire of Him in every, EVERY, major life decision (as well as a number of minor ones too).  Inquiring of the Lord is probably the most important part of prayer; do not think of it as selfish because He looks forward to you coming to Him.  How He longs to share His wisdom with you.

Before you make a move, go and pray.  Get God’s divine instruction and you will be successful.  You will obtain the victory!

“But even there you can look for the Lord your God. And you will find him if you look. But you must look for him with your whole being.” –Deuteronomy 4:29 ICB

 

THE BATTLE CRY Part IV: WHAT ARE THE BEST PRAYERS?

(The following “Spiritual Tidbit” was shared with the residents of our community by Kristin LaVe’, from Pastoral Care of St. John’s United.  It was so poignant that I just had to share it with you.  While you read it, keep in mind how you pray; do you pray with fancy words, with lots of thee’s and thou’s; are your prayers repetitive?  These are all good ways to pray because prayer, at its simplest is just any communication with God.  No matter what is said prayer is just that simple.  Talk with God in the way that is most comfortable to you; bottom line, He is waiting for you to talk with Him.)

 

SPIRITUAL TIDBITS, Jan 13^th (FROM Kristin La Ve’, Pastoral Care at St. John’s United)

Romans 8:26 “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.”

Today is a good day to pray.  Yesterday was a good day to pray and tomorrow will be a good day to pray.

Have you ever struggled with words to pray or how to convey your prayers to God?  I’ve second guessed my prayers as not good enough or holy enough or even not genuine enough.  Maybe you have too.

Several years ago I came to Atonement Lutheran Church for a meeting but instead I found that the beloved to-be interim pastor, Rev. Merv Olson, had died at the desk in the pastor’s office.  No one else was in the church and I immediately called 911 and waited for the EMT’s to arrive.  While I waited with Merv, I felt that it was a good and necessary time to pray for a man who was respected, honored and beloved by many.  He served as a pastor to thousands of people in churches over the years.  He was someone who had received recognition only a week or so earlier by the Montana Synod for 50 years of ministry.  In my eyes, he was practically a saint.

I stood over his body and reached for as may holy and sacred words of honor power, and peace that I could come up with for a prayer but I had no words.  My brain was grasping for anything that would provide holiness in this sacred and terrible moment.

One word was all I managed in my prayer.  “Help.”

God answered.  Help showed up in a firetruck and an ambulance and in Jack Beals who had been mowing the lawn at the Little white Church.  Help came when Pr. Karl Guhn drove to Atonement to be there in support while the police and coroner questioned me and did paperwork.  Help showed up for the Atonement community in our shock and grief as we remembered, hugged, and cried together.  Help came when a permanent pastor answered the call later that summer with Pr. Darren Paulson. 

When you and I don’t know what to pray, “Help” is enough.  Tears are enough.  A sigh is enough.  A breath is enough.  God will show up as God is doing now.  Continue to pray, even if it seems less than perfect.  God is listening and God will answer.

Let us pray,

Dear God, help.  Amen.