Good News Daily – October 5

Right now I am doing a combination of resting and spending time with the Lord and pressing on in my ministry work when and as the Lord leads me. I am not going at my usual full force pace, but learning more and more how to be sensitive and obedient to the Spirit of Christ lovingly and mercifully leading me.

As always, and at an especially deep level right now, I am doing plenty of repenting as the Lord continually purifies me and makes me more and more like Himself. I am yielding to Him as He conforms me to Himself.

Long ago, I entered into ministry entirely unprepared most especially in my personal relationship with the Lord and in my heart. I was far too self-consumed to be in ministry, and not nearly enough grounded in a personal relationship with Jesus and in the Word of God to do what I was then doing in ministry.

Now, I know there is NOTHING MORE IMPORTANT for each and every one of us than to believe in and fully humbly lovingly obediently follow the Lord Jesus Christ, and our personal relationship with Him has to come first even before ministry work for Him.

It continues to be a very trying time spiritually and emotionally for reasons I am not led to share, but the Lord is faithful in carrying me through it all.

I would greatly appreciate your prayers as the spiritual battle rages on and the Lord continues His gracious and merciful work in and through me!

IF YOU NEED HELP BEGINNING OR PRESSING ON IN A FOREVER RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO REACH OUT AT 843-338-2219 OR lara@GoodNews.love

love & blessings,

lara

Dear friend,

“How can you go forward without me leading the way?” the Spirit of Christ who inhabits His followers spoke to my heart. “In the flesh alone.”

Meaning? And how it applies to you and me and all of us? Unless we believe in and follow the Lord Jesus Christ and His ways, we are living for self according to the world’s ways and bowing down to the devil, sin, and darkness.

The Lord ALWAYS and ONLY speaks in line with the Bible. What does His Word say?

“Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.””

Jesus’ followers are to walk in His light not in the darkness of self and sin.

God’s children are those who turn from their sins, believe Jesus is Lord and died on the cross to pay our sin penalty and was raised from the dead, genuinely turning our lives over to the Lord and His ways. God’s children are indwelt by His Spirit.

May this verse and the one above encourage you to be led by God’s Spirit as you walk forth in the Lord’s glorious light!

“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” Romans 8:14

CLEAN UP YOUR OBEDIENCE

“How can you do what I’ve called you to do when you’re running around doing everything else?”

That’s not the only thing the Lord has spoken to my heart recently when it comes to obedience. But it all fits into the same overall message He has been giving me – and giving me to give to others. Maybe you?

“Clean up your obedience,” He told me recently.

Then, a few days later, more. “Clean up your obedience,” I recall He told me. “It’s messy.”

How so?

He had told me to turn left on a certain street. For all I know, there could have been someone dying on that street who needed to hear the Gospel message. Or maybe He just wanted to remind me I must submit to Him in all things all the time all for His glory. Regardless, I found what I thought was a quicker way to get where I was going. So I went my way and figured I would end up in the same destination the Lord wanted me to go anyway. Or did I figure Him into my walk at all?

Truth? My obedience still has had too much resistance, debate, questioning, hesitating, etc. in it. It has not come with total and immediate submission and thanksgiving – and obedience!

Right down to the very smallest of things, to the very detail, no matter whether it makes sense or not, no matter what we feel or think or want, we are to believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and to follow Jesus Christ as Lord – which involves OBEYING JESUS CHRIST AS LORD. Not messily, but cleanly. Totally. For His name’s sake, AMEN!

Got some cleaning up to do?

365 BLESSINGS is a devotional book the Lord has led me to publish piece by piece even as I’m writing it rather than waiting until it’s in print to share it. Please join me & be blessed as I write my latest book…!

Blessing #150

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Phil. 4:13

This is probably one of the verses in the Bible I’ve heard quoted more than almost any other. Oh, we who follow Jesus need to be encouraged when it comes to the beautiful fact the Lord Jesus Christ gives us the strength we need to do what He calls us to do.

The New King James Version (NKJV) of the Bible says, “strengthens”. The King James Version (KJV) says, “strengtheneth”. My understanding is that this verb form implies an ongoing action. It’s not a one-time, quickly ending occurrence. In this verse, then, wouldn’t this mean that Jesus’ followers have access to ongoing strength from the Lord to do His will? Oh, how blessed we are to receive the strength of Christ by the Spirit of Christ each and every day! As much strength as we need to fulfill His will for our lives! By the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ!

“Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, because I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols; they will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all their abominations.” Ezekiel 6:9

I honestly don’t know how many times I read this verse over the years before the Lord opened my eyes to see something utterly heartbreaking.

The Lord says HE WAS CRUSHED – yes, CRUSHED – by their what? “Adulterous heart.” AND by what? Their EYES! Which like harlots – or whores – looked to their idols. The King James version says “broken” instead of crushed.

Do you realize what the Lord is saying? THEY CRUSHED – or BROKE – HIS HEART! With their rebellion against Him! With their spiritual adultery! With their whoredom! Not just in their actions. In their HEARTS and EYES! In other words, they crushed the Lord with their THOUGHTS, their EYES, their HEARTS – and most assuredly their actions. They turned from Him to their idols and broke His heart!

Why would the Lord tell US this? As a history lesson? NO! As a WARNING! That we BREAK HIS HEART when we rebel against Him! In our hearts, eyes, and actions. When we turn away from the Lord, or never turn to Him in the first place, we GRIEVE GOD ALMIGHTY!

Our sins have consequences, and when we don’t turn from them to Christ as Lord the ultimate result is death, hell, and the lake of fire in forever torment. But even for those of us who follow Jesus, our sins have consequences. We still will have to give an account when our lives are over, we still will lose rewards we might have had in heaven.

And, most of all, WE HURT AND BREAK AND CRUSH THE HEART OF THE LORD!

Is it possible we miss this when we consider sin? Are we so consumed with ourselves we only think about whether we’ll go to heaven or hell? Or that we may have yucky consequences on earth if we do something wrong? Do we think about THE LORD when we sin? And what we do to Him? Or do we only think about us?

IS NOT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING OF ALL THAT WE NEED TO LOVE AND FEAR AND HONOR AND REVERE GOD ALMIGHTY AND DESIRE AND STRIVE TO LOVE AND WORSHIP HIM FOREVER AND NOT GRIEVE HIS HEART?

Oh, friend, let us humble ourselves before the Lord, repent when we need to repent, and ever work to love and please the Lord not break His heart! Let us nt grieve God almighty! Let us bow down before Him and love and serve Him forevermore, AMEN!

Being on the front lines in ministry for Christ comes with a cost, and that cost can be high. For some, as we see in the Bible and in the news, people lose their very lives for Christ. For others, it may be as simple as giving up a few hours a week to do something for the Lord instead of relaxing and enjoying quiet nights at home curled up with a book and a cozy blanket in front of the warm fire. Some are called to leave their countries and families behind. Others are called to give up high-paying jobs and comfortable lifestyles and to move into tough neighborhoods to spread the Gospel message out on the streets.

The cost I have had to pay to be on the road for Jesus full-time with my handicapped streets ministry doggies doing streets ministry and writing and publishing tracts, devotionals, and books is NOTHING compared with the cost so many have paid and are paying and will pay for the cause of Christ. Nevertheless, I have felt the cost and it hasn’t always been easy to say the least.

Selling a little paid-for house not far from the ocean in beautiful, quiet, calm, affordable, peaceful coastal South Carolina and giving most everything away, traveling in a car with almost 250,000 miles on it, leading a ministry with a tiny budget, living an extremely economical lifestyle, staying mostly in hotels with handicapped dogs and a small apartment when I’m in New York City, dealing with hard situations, dangerous and scary situations, running across rats and roaches, filth and smell, vomit and people cursing me and lashing out at me, being often far from friends and family, being single for Christ, having much time on my own when I love people to spend alone time with Jesus and work on my writing, foregoing my own dreams to live the life to which the Lord has called me, not having a stable “home” but living day by day knowing the Lord might call me any day to my next location, yes, it’s most assuredly been challenging.

But I wouldn’t trade loving and serving Jesus in the way to which He has called me for anything in this world. My fire for Jesus is ever-growing, and at the heart of my service which involves sacrifice is LOVE. The love the Lord pours into and through me, and the love I have for Him in return and the love He has given me for others. Love is why I do what I do. For I love Jesus more than anything and anyone in the world.

Friend, serving Jesus isn’t about picking and choosing what we want to do to make ourselves happy and feel comfortable, safe, and secure, to satisfy our own desires and to get pats on the back from the world around us. It’s about humbling ourselves before the Lord God almighty and seeking Him and obeying Him in every area of our hearts and lives – service included.

Got some praying to do?