GOOD NEWS DAILY – Sept 20

Little did I know what a perfect fit I would be for the life of an evangelist on the road for Jesus. My restlessness is now a blessing. I can do a zillion things at the same time, am a natural fit for doing triage for people and their needs, and love to bounce back and forth between changing a paralyzed streeets ministry doggy’s diaper, running to the computer to quickly write a devotional ready to pour out of me, answering a call from someone in need, walking the dogs and running into people needing to hear about Jesus, rushing back to the computer for more writing, and on and on it goes. With a little rest along the way and perhaps not enough of it since my mind keeps going even when I don’t!

There truly are few dull moments in my life, and I am thankful for this. Why? I love the Lord Jesus Christ more than anything and anyone in the universe, and I love the privilege of loving and worshiping Him forever and of telling the world about Him every opportunity I get!

I just finished writing my latest book and am working on a light edit before publishing it, am excited to be joining my brothers-in-Jesus in a few days God willing to do some streets ministry at a special event, and honestly am still exhausted from a few nights ago when I had one of the most powerful nights of ministry and prayer with a precious brother-in-the-Lord I have ever had.

Please keep on praying for me, the ministry, the ministry doggies, and all those reached through this ministry for Christ’s sake.

Hope you’re blessed and encouraged by today’s GOOD NEWS DAILY!

love & blessings,

love & blessings,

lara

Friend, each and every day of our lives, we have this opportunity. To live for the Lord of Lords, King of Kings, God almighty, Savior of the world, Jesus the Christ!

We can’t redo the past when it comes to living entirely for Jesus, but we most assuredly can spend the rest of this day and the rest of our lives entirely committed to living and breathing to love and glorify the Lord.

I encourage you to make a 100% commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ and to be assured at the end of each day not to mention the end of your life that you have above all else lived for Jesus!

“and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” 2 Cor. 5:15

lara

“Why do you hate me?” I asked him. He told me two things. First, he felt I was wrong to put my Gospel tract in the other man’s cup. I should put it on the ground. So I did.

Also, he told me he hated the Lord because of something that had happened in his life. Instead of judging him, I loved him. And could totally understand. In my hardest times, I have fallen into rage at the Lord. I needed to repent. Nevertheless, the truth is I railed against God because of my hurts and heartache. The Lord forgave me.

The man who had lashed out at me didn’t believe I could understand how he felt. When I shared pieces of my past with him, he shared back with me how his own story was similar in ways to mine.

Minutes later, his heart was so wide open I gave him my Gospel tract he had refused and walked away with love for him and in awe of what the Lord had done. I knew a big seed of Christ’s love and the Gospel message had been planted in that man’s heart. He had told me over and again how he couldn’t believe Jesus would die on the cross for someone like him, so I had a wonderful opportunity to talk to him about Christ’s love for him and His death and resurrection and how we’re called to turn our lives over to Him.

I don’t remember the exact words I spoke. Only that what had begun as a man spewing pure hatred at me turned into an opportunity to share in love the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

My greatest desires in life used to be all about me. Today my greatest desire in life is about the Lord Jesus Christ and me and others loving and following Him forevermore!

Have you turned from your sins and truly given Christ your heart and life? He died for us all, but it’s up to us whether we will turn from our sins and receive Him as Lord and live our lives accordingly.

Turn, turn, turn to Jesus my friend. Surrender ALL to Him, AMEN!

PLEASE DON’T WORRY ABOUT 14-YEAR-OLD ABIGAIL AND 8-YEAR-OLD DISABLED GRACIE WHO COULDN’T FIT ON THE BED WITH US. THEY’RE ALL CUDDLED UP ON THE MASSIVE HUMAN-SIZED DOGGY BED MR. SIMEON AND MISS MERCY GAVE UP TO GET ON MY BED/OFFICE.

Blessing #145

““I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.” John 10:11-15

Have you ever stopped to think – to really, really think – about the fact the Lord Jesus Christ GAVE UP HIS LIFE as the GOOD SHEPHERD for THE SHEEP? The Bible says we are ALL sheep who have gone “ASTRAY” (1 Peter 2:25) and (Isaiah 53:6), and right then and there the Lord has every right to GIVE UP ON US FOREVER! But instead of giving up on us, HE GAVE UP HIS LIFE FOR US! HIS VERY LIFE! On the cross, yes, by taking every sin and the punishment we all deserve throughout time for ALL SINS OF ALL PEOPLE on Himself. AND – yes AND – He gave up His life on this earth in that HE LIVED IT ENTIRELY FOR THE FATHER AND FOR US! His life on earth wasn’t devoted to Himself and to enjoying Himself. His life was FOR US! Is there any shepherd greater? NO! Any blessing greater when it comes to sacrifice? NO! Could we ever be thankful enough that CHRIST GAVE UP HIS LIFE FOR US? NO! Then, friend, let us say thank you in LIVING OUR LIVES FOR HIM – now, absolutely, and forever, absolutely YES! AMEN!

Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
My lips shall praise You.
Thus I will bless You while I live;
I will lift up my hands in Your name.
My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.” Psalm 63:1-5

“This is my family,” a woman told me as she walked up to where I stood at the back of a chapel service at a homeless shelter in New York City. “Otherwise I’m all alone,” she essentially said.

We whispered briefly then and a little a bit later.

“I can’t remember the last time I’ve felt lonely,” I told her. I gave her my Gospel tract which includes my personal story – and every reason why I SHOULD feel lonely – and told her she is welcome to reach out to me anytime.

I tell people continually they are welcome to contact me so I can love and encourage them and help them to find and forever follow the Lord Jesus Christ, but most people do not do so at least right away if not ever. That is okay. For my greatest desire is not that people reach out to me. It is that they cry out to the Lord Jesus Christ.

I really do have every reason to be lonely pretty much 24-7. But I never am. Oh, sure, I LOVE people and sometimes miss people time. But the Lord has given me a life of much solitude when I’m not ministering to people such that I’m wholly available to Him. And He has taken away the desperate loneliness I once had and replaced it with Himself. He is with me every breath of my life and forever.

I used to be a very lonely lady. Now when I meet lonely people I get to tell them who and what can take their loneliness away. Jesus. Precious Jesus. Forever God. Forever Lord. King forever. The Lord Jesus Christ. And a personal forever relationship with Him we receive when we turn from our sins, believe in Him as Lord who died on the cross to pay our sin penalty and was raised from the dead, and sincerely turn our lives over to God and His ways.

Why? Because I am so prone to distraction. And I was mightily distracted. Even when He told me to sit down and be faithful, know what happened? I got distracted again.

Then I got it. What I needed to do. Shove away the distractions and follow Jesus. What He had said.

To sit down. And be faithful. In other words, to stop doing everything else and do what the Lord wanted me to do. To get busy about His business not mine. To follow His Spirit not my flesh and all the temptations to do other things.

That’s why I’m sitting here right now writing this. Because I made the decision to sit down and be faithful. Not all of us are called to go out on the streets as an evangelist. Nor to sit down at a computer and write and publish Gospel tracts, devotionals, and books. Nor to care for handicapped streets ministry doggies. Nor to be out on the road full-time for Jesus with no home base and to just go where the Spirit of God sends us when He sends us before He sends us to the next place. That’s my calling. It may not be yours in the slightest.

The Lord has a plan for each of us, and we need to follow Him and follow His plan. I have a sense someone or maybe even many people reading this need to sit down and be faithful. To get busy doing God’s will whatever that is for you reading this. To stop being distracted. To stop going the wrong direction. To stop thinking other stuff is more important. To stop being too afraid. To stop being disobedient. To stop rebelling. To stop thinking it’s impossible when in fact the Lord will give you the strength and resources to fulfill His will for you.

Need to sit down and be faithful?